Field emission properties of carbon nanotube pillar arrays patterned directly on metal alloy surfaces

Carbon nanotube pillar arrays (CPAs) for cold field emission were fabricated using a conventional photolithography process, and the geometry of these arrays was studied and the effect of pillar height on field emission was quantified. Our CPA samples achieved turn-on fields as low as 0.9 V/mum and stable current densities of 10 mA/cm
²
at applied field lower than 6V/mum.