Study of Thermal-Field Emission Properties and Investigation of Temperature dependent Noise in the Emission Current form vertical Carbon nanotube emitters

Abstract

We have investigated temperature dependent field electron emission characteristics of vertical carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The generalized expression for electron emission from well defined cathode surface is given by Millikan and Lauritsen [1] for the combination of temperature and electric field effect. The same expression has been used to explain the electron emission characteristics from vertical CNT emitters. Furthermore, this has been applied to explain the electron emission for different temperatures ranging from room temperature to 1500 K. The real-time field electron emission images at room temperature and 1500 K are recorded by using Charge Coupled Device (CCD), in order to understand the effect of temperature on electron emission spots in image morphology (as indicated by ring like structures) and electron emission spot intensity of the emitters. Moreover, the field electron emission images can be used to calculate the total number of emitters per cm2 for electron emission. The calculated number of emitters per cm2 is 4.5x107 and, the actual number emitters per cm2 present for electron emission calculated from Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) data is 1.2x1012. The measured Current-Voltage (I-V) characteristics obey the Folwer-Nordheim (F-N) type behavior. The fluctuations in the emission current are recorded at different temperatures and, temperature dependence of power spectral density obeys power law relation s(f)=I2/f2 with that of emission current and frequency.