Abstract
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were deposited on conical tip-type substrates via electrophoresis and coated with lithium (Li) thin films with diverse thicknesses via electroplating. For the as-deposited (i.e., without Li coating) CNT, the turn-on (or triggering) electric field was 0.92V/μm, and the emission current, which was generated at an applied field of 1.2V/μm was 56μA. In the case of the 4.7nm-thick Li-coated CNT, the turn-on field decreased to 0.65V/μm and the emission current at the same applied field increased more than ten times to 618μA. The analysis based on the Kelvin probe measurement and Fowler–Nordheim theory indicated that the coating of Li caused a loss in the structural-aspect-ratio of the CNTs and it reduced their effective work functions from 5.36eV to 4.90eV, which led to a great improvement of their electron emission characteristics. The results obtained in this study also showed that the long-term emission stability could be enhanced by the coating of thin Li films on CNTs.
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