Graphite coated CNTs for high current electron emission devices

We studied the effect of resin treatment of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on field emission from carbon nanotube electron emitter arrays grown using the resist-assisted patterning (RAP) process. The electron emission current and stability of emission current of graphite coated CNTs were remarkably improved. We measured about 10 times increase of field emission current and better emission stability with graphite coated CNTs. The emission current densities of as grown CNT emitter arrays and those which were later processed by resin treatment, were 1.9 mA/cm² and 20.2 mA/cm², respectively, when measured at an anode field of 8.0 V/μm. The enhancement in electron emission of CNTs after resin treatment appears to be due to the effect of graphitization between the substrate and CNTs. Such graphitization increases the adhesion between the substrate and CNTs and increases the thermal dispersion property caused by high electron emission current.