52.4: Formation of Secondary Thin CNTs on Thick CNTs for FED Emitters

Abstract

The formation of many carbon nanotube (CNT) tips with small diameter on the surface of thick CNTs was investigated to improve the field-emission uniformity of a CNT emitter. A CNT layer was first grown on a metal substrate by thermal-chemical vapor deposition (CVD). CNTs in the layer were multiwalled nanotubes with diameter of 30 – 50 nm. A metal catalyst was then vacuum-deposited on the CNT layer, and secondary thin CNTs with diameter of 3 – 10 nm were formed from the catalyst particles attached to the surface of primary CNTs by thermal-CVD. The field emission from the CNT layer with the secondary CNTs showed an improvement in the uniformity of the emission current distribution. The developed CNT emitter was applied to high-resolution CNT-FED. The sub-pixel size was 0.2mm × 0.6mm.