Anodic-aluminum-oxide templated carbon nanotubes in the field emission triode

Abstract

To fabricate the field-emission triode structure, carbon nanotubes (CNT) were used as field emitters and grown in the anodic aluminum oxide (AAO). AAO thin layer with vertical pore channels was first prepared on the Si (100) substrate and was used to template the following growth of CNTs in an electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD) system. The tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) oxide and At layer were deposited on the CAITs and acted as the dielectric layer and gate electrode layers for the triode structure, respectively. Reactive ion and wet etches were then used to open the field-emission area in the triode. Field-emission characteristics of the CNT emitters have been studied and an anode turn-on field of similar to 8.05 V/mu m was measured.