Carbon Nanotube Fiber Field Emission Array Cathodes

Field emission cathodes made from single bulk carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers have demonstrated high emission currents and long lifetimes. This paper investigates the goal of achieving even higher current levels from field emission array (FEA) cathodes comprised of multiple CNT fibers arranged in various array configurations. Arrays were fabricated with 25-μm-diameter CNT fibers in 2-fiber (1 × 2), 4-fiber (2 × 2), and 25-fiber (5 × 5) configurations, and their field emission properties were measured. The 1 × 2 and 2 × 2 FEA cathodes achieved the maximum current values that scaled to greater than 2 mA per emitter. The 5 × 5 FEA cathode achieved a high maximum current value of 22 mA and exhibited stable emission for 10 h at ~9 mA at an applied field strength of 0.11 V/μm. The Fowler-Nordheim theory was used to calculate the effective field enhancement factor (β
_eff
) values for all of the arrays. Electrostatic simulations were performed using COMSOL Multiphysics modeling software to model the field enhancement of a perfectly uniform 5 × 5 array. The β
_eff
value for the total array was compared to the individual β values at the fiber tips predicted by a surface potential model that predicted the field amplification of all 25 CNT fibers in the array.