Impacts of purposely field enhancement on high electron emitting CNT-cathode

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been shown to be good field emission materials [1]. Field electron emitters can be fabricated based on vertically aligned CNTs (VACNTs) which were grown directly on silicon or metal substrates. While there are several studies on the optimized distribution of individual CNTs for enhanced electron emission [2], there were not many previous reports on the electrostatic edge-effect at peripheral outer sites of highly ordered VACNT structures [3]. In this report, we present the edge effect that impact on consequent electron emission of the CNT-based emitters.