Investigation of surface-conducted field emission from ZnO nanostructures as electron emitter in x-ray tube

As experimental results show, a lower turn on electric field of 1.2V/mum is achieved, and a total emission current of 20 mA is obtained from a 0.8 cm2 area ZnO nanostructures-based cathode, which is enough for radiating an adequate x-ray dose. Furthermore, a good focus performance of electron beam is also obtained with the new focusing electrode-pattern. The ZnO nanostructures-based cold cathode x-ray technology is of significance to the development of high-resolution x-ray imaging system.