Morphology effect on field emission property of carbon nanotube emitters in triode structure

Abstract

In this work, process variation on the field emission property of the fabricated field emission (FE) triode arrays with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as the field emitters are explored. To fabricate the FE triode structure, nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) thin layer was first prepared on the Si substrate, followed by the growth of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes in AAO pore channels by electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition. The SiO2 dielectric and Al gate electrode layers required for the triode structure were directly deposited on the CNTs. Reactive ion and wet etches were then used to open the FE area in the triode. We employ the finite difference time domain particle-in-cell method to calculate the structure FE properly, where the results are calibrated with the collected FE current of the fabricated samples. The FE current Of Structure is then examined with respect to different shape, random height and angle of the CNT emitters. For symmetric shapes, like circle and square, the emission beam has been more focusing than triangle and trapezoid. The electric field of random height of CNTs is stronger than that of random angle. It is implied that the vertical CNTs has better FE property. Having the symmetric shape and vertical CNTs in triode Structure benefits the FE sources for advanced flat display technologies.