Field emission property of multi-cathode electron sources with vertically aligned CNT arrays

Carbon nanotube (CNT)-based cold cathode has been used as an efficient electron emitter owing to its high electrical conductivity and unique structural feature of high aspect ratio. However, conventional CNT-based cold cathode with diode electrode configuration restricts the applicable range of the CNT cold cathode. Here, we present the systematic investigation of electron beam property and I-V characteristic of various CNT-based multi-emitter system for advanced electron emitting devices capable of large areal applications. Single emitter island, consisting of well-defined N x N CNT strands, shows high maximum current value, low turn-on voltage and large electron beam diameter with increase of N value. For the multi-emitter system consisting multi-islands, a critical pitch size of multi-emitter system is found to obtain separated electron beam for each island without significant interference between electrons departing from each island.