Patterned selective growth of carbon nanotubes and large field emission from vertically well-aligned carbon nanotube field emitter arrays

We have grown well-aligned carbon nanotube arrays by thermal chemical vapor deposition at 800 °C on Fe nanoparticles deposited by a pulsed laser on a porous Si substrate. We also attain a selective growth of carbon nanotubes on a patterned Fe film on Si substrates in terms of pulsed laser deposition and a liftoff patterning method. Field emission measurement has been made on the carbon nanotube (CNT)-cathode diode device at room temperature and in a vacuum chamber below 10−6 Torr. The distance between the CNT cathode and the anode is 60 μm and is kept through an insulating spacer of polyvinyl film. The measured field emitting area is 4.0×10−5 cm2. Our vertically well-aligned carbon nanotube field emitter arrays on the Si-wafer substrate emit a large current density as high as 80 mA/cm2 at 3 V/μm. The transmission electron microscope image shows that they are multiwalled and bamboolike structures and that the tips of some of the carbon nanotube emitters are open. The open tip structure of our CNTs and their good adhesion via Fe nanoparticles to the Si substrate are part of the reason why we can attain a large field emission current density within a low field.