In-situ characterization and theoretical consideration of field emission from graphene

A growing number of one-dimensional nanomaterials including nanotubes, nanorods and nanowires have been synthesized and found to give attractive field electron emission performance. Field emission from a two-dimensional (2D) regime is emerging as new hot topic, due to graphene can offer ones such opportunity, and its open surface and sharp edge may be beneficial for field emission. Two-dimensional geometry effect, such as massless Dirac fermions, may lead to new mechanism in field emission. Recently, we have performed in-situ field emission characterization on various forms of graphene, including individual singe-layer graphene with the purpose of understanding the related mechanism. In parallel, theoretical investigations have been carried out to understand the underlying physical mechanism. We shall reports on the progress of the above studies.