Field Emission Properties of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Films

This paper presents the experimental studies of the field electron emission properties of films of single-walled carbon nanotubes. The films were fabricated by a dry-deposition technique from the nanotubes synthesized by a floating catalyst (aerosol) method. The nanotubes were collected from the gas phase on the nitrocellulose filters and then transferred onto the silicon wafers. The films demonstrated a low-voltage electron emission with a threshold field values from 1 to 2 V/mu m and a homogeneous distribution of emission sites over a large film area with the density around 10(-4) cm(-2). A noticeable spread of the emission characteristics was found for the films with a different thicknesses obtained at the same synthesis conditions. Nevertheless, the overall field emission properties of the SWCNTs films were found to be prospective for the applications in vacuum electronics.