AVS 47th International Symposium
    Nanotubes - Science and Applications Monday Sessions
       Session NM+NS-MoA

Paper NM+NS-MoA7
Ultra-Low Bias Operation of Field Emitter using Single Wall Carbon Nanotube Directly Grown onto Silicon Tip by Thermal CVD

Monday, October 2, 2000, 4:00 pm, Room 309

Session: Carbon Nanotubes: Nanoelectronics and Field Emission
Presenter: K. Matsumoto, Electrotechnical Laboratory, Japan
Authors: K. Matsumoto, Electrotechnical Laboratory, Japan
S. Kinoshita, Meiji University, Japan
Y. Gotoh, Tsukuba University, Japan
T. Uchiyama, Advanced Technology Institute, Japan
S. Manalis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
C. Quate, Stanford University
Correspondent: Click to Email
The new carbon nanotube field emitter with single wall carbon nanotubes of a diameter of 1~2nm which were grown directly by thermal CVD onto the Si tips and protruded from them@footnote 1@ was developed. Owing to the 10 to 20 times smaller diameter of nanotube than the conventional Si tip, the new carbon nanotube field emitter showed the ultra-low threshold bias of 10V for the field emission of electron which is more than 10~50 times smaller value than the conventional Si emitter. The n-type silicon was etched by SF@sub 6@gas to form the 10900 silicon tips . After the chemical catalyst was spin coated, the sample was set in the furnace with hydro-carbonate gas flow at high temperature. The single wall carbon nanotube then started to grow and followed up the wall of the silicon tip to the top and protruded from the silicon tip. Three kinds of spacers of 6µm, 10µm, 21µm were prepared to change the distance between the anode and the carbon nanotube emitter. When the spacer is 21µm, the electrons began to emit at the applied bias of ~25V. The narrower the spacer, the threshold bias becomes smaller. When the spacer is 6µm, the electron starts to emit at the applied bias of as small as 10V. In the Fowler-Nordheim plot, the current follows the linear lines in 4~5 orders of magnitudes even at the different spacer thickness, which means the electrons are really field emitted from the carbon nanotube through the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. This single wall carbon nanotube field emitter could be applicable to any kind of low power consumption flat panel displays in future. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ J. Kong, C. Zhou, A. Morpurgo, H. T. Soh, C. F. Quate, C. Marcus, H. Dai, Applied Physics A69, p. 305, (1999).