• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.743-748
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• 2010

Boron nitride (BN) and carbon nitride (CN) films, which have relatively low work functions and commonly exhibit negative electron affinity behaviors, were coated on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by magnetron sputtering. The CNTs were directly grown on metal-tip (tungsten, approximately 500nm in diameter at the summit part) substrates by inductively coupled plasma-chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD). The variations in the morphology and microstructure of CNTs due to coating of the BN and CN films were analyzed by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy were used to identify the existence of the coated layers (CN and BN) on CNTs. The electron-emission properties of the BN-coated and CN-coated CNT-emitters were characterized using a high-vacuum field emission measurement system, in terms of their maximum emission currents ($I_{max}$) at 1kV and turn-on voltage ($V_{on}$) for approaching $1{\mu}A$. The results showed that the $I_{max}$ current was significantly increased and the $V_{on}$ voltage were remarkably reduced by the coating of CN or BN films. The measured values of $I_{max}-V_{on}$ were as follows; $176{\mu}A$-500V for the 5nm CN-coated emitter and $289{\mu}A$-540V for the 2nm BN-coated emitter, respectively, while the $I_{max}-V_{on}$ of the as-grown (i.e., uncoated) emitter was $134{\mu}A$-620V. In addition, the CNT emitters coated with thin CN or BN films also showed much better long-term (up to 25h) stability behaviors in electron emission, as compared with the conventional CNT emitter.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.120-120
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• 2006

탄소나노튜브는 nm급의 크기에 높은 전기전도도, 열전도 효율, 감한 기계적 강도 등의 장점을 가지며, FED(Field Emission Display), 극미세 전자 스위칭 소자, SET(Single Electron Transistor), AFM(Atomic Force Microscope) tip등 여러 분야로의 응용을 연구하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 탄소나노튜브를 Si 웨이퍼 위에 Ni/Ti 금속층을 촉매층으로 사용하고, 암모니아($NH_3$)가스와 아세틸렌 ($C_2H_2$)가스를 각각 희석가스와 성장원으로 사용하여 합성하였다. 탄소나노튜브의 성장은 Hot filament 화학기상증측(HFPECVD) 방식을 사용하였으며, 이 방법은 다량의 합성, 높은 균일성, 좋은 정렬 특성등의 장점을 가진다. 성장 온도는 탄소나노튜브의 성장 특성을 변화시키는 중요한 요소이다. 성장 온도에 따라 수직적 성장, 성장 밀도등의 특성 변화를 관찰하였다. 성장된 탄소나노튜브층 성분 분석은 에너지 분산형 X-선 측정기(EDS)를 통해 관찰하였고, 끝단에 촉매층이 존재하는 30~50 nm 폭을 가진 다중벽 탄소나노튜브를 고배율 투과전자현미경(HRTEM) 분석을 통해 관찰하였다. 전계방사 주사전자현미경(FESEM) 분석을 동해 1~3${\mu}m$의 길이를 가진 탄소나노튜브가 높은 밀도로 성장된 것을 확인하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.150-150
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• 2010

Carbon nanotubes have drawn attention as one of the most promising emitter materials ever known not only due to their nanometer-scale radius of curvature at tip and extremely high aspect ratios but also due to their strong mechanical strength, excellent thermal conductivity, good chemical stability, etc. Some applications of CNTs as emitters, such as X-ray tubes and microwave amplifiers, require high current emission over a small emitter area. The field emission for high current density often damages CNT emitters by Joule heating, field evaporation, or electrostatic interaction. In order to endure the high current density emission, CNT emitters should be optimally fabricated in terms of material properties and morphological aspects: highly crystalline CNT materials, low gas emission during electron emission in vacuum, optimal emitter distribution density, optimal aspect ratio of emitters, uniform emitter height, strong emitter adhesion onto a substrate, etc. We attempted a novel approach to fabricate CNT emitters to meet some of requirements described above, including highly crystalline CNT materials, low gas emission, and strong emitter adhesion. In this study, CNT emitters were fabricated by filtrating an aqueous suspension of highly crystalline thin multiwalled CNTs (Hanwha Nanotech Inc.) through a metal mesh. The metal mesh served as a support and fixture frame of CNT emitters. When 5 ml of the CNT suspension was engaged in filtration through a 400 mesh, the CNT layers were formed to be as thick as the mesh at the mesh openings. The CNT emitter sample of $1{\times}1\;cm^2$ in size was characteristic of the turn-on electrical field of 2.7 V/${\mu}m$ and the current density of 14.5 mA at 5.8 V/${\mu}m$ without noticeable deterioration of emitters. This study seems to provide a novel fabrication route to simply produce small-size CNT emitters for high current emission with reliability.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.291-297
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• 2007

The field emission properties of CNT-emitters coated with Ag-Cu alloy have been investigated. The vertical aligned multi-walled CNTs were synthesized by dc-plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (dc-PECVD) and the Ag-Cu alloy was coated by using dc-magnetron sputter. The morphology of alloy-coated and un-coated CNT-emitters was observed by using SEM and their field emission properties were also measured. Annealing the AgCu-coated CNTs at temperature more than ${\sim}700^{\circ}C$, the Ag-Cu alloy was diffused to and aggregated on the top of the CNT as a Q-tip. A significant progress on the field emission was not observed with coating Ag-Cu alloy on the CNTs, but a certain improvement in a resistance against oxygen gas was made confirmation. It seems to be due to inertness of Ag-Cu alloy on the CNTs.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.31.1-31.1
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• 2009

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are attractive material because of their superior electrical, mechanical, and chemical properties. Furthermore, their geometric features such as a large aspect ratio and a small radius of curvature at tip make them ideal for low-voltage field emission devices including backlight units of liquid crystal display, lighting lamps, X-ray source, microwave amplifiers, electron microscopes, etc. In field emission devices for display applications, the phosphor anode is positioned against the CNT emitters. In most case, light generated from the phosphor by electron bombardment passes through the anode front plate to reach observers. However, light is produced in a narrow depth of the surface of the phosphor layer because phosphor particles are big as much as several micrometers, which means that it is necessary to transmit through the phosphor layer. Hence, a drop of light intensity is unavoidable during this process. In this study, we fabricated a transparent cathode back plate by depositing an ultra-thin film of single walled CNTs (SWCNTs) on an indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrate. Two types of phosphor anode plates were employed to our transparent cathode back plate: One is an ITO glass substrate with a phosphor layer and the other is a Cr-coated glass substrate with phosphor layer. For the former case, light was radiated from both the front and the back sides, where luminance on the back was ~30% higher than that on the front in our experiments. For the other case, however, light was emitted only from the cathode back side as the Cr layer on the anode glass rolled as a reflecting mirror, improving the light luminance as much as ~60% compared with that on the front of one. This study seems to be discussed about the morphologies and field emission characteristics of CNT emitters according to the experimental parameters in fabricating the lamps emitting light on the both sides or only on the cathode back side. The experimental procedures are as follows. First, a CNT aqueous solution was prepared by ultrasonically dispersing purified SWCNTs in deionized water with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). A milliliter or even several tens of micro-liters of CNT solution was deposited onto a porous alumina membrane through vacuum filtration. Thereafter, the alumina membrane was solvated with the 3 M NaOH solution and the floating CNT film was easily transferred to an ITO glass substrate. It is required for CNT film to make standing CNTs up to serve as electron emitter through an adhesive roller activation.