In situ oxygen-assisted field emission treatment for improving the uniformity of carbon nanotube pixel arrays and the underlying mechanism

An oxygen-assisted field emission treatment is introduced for improving field emission uniformity of carbon nanotube (CNT) pixel arrays. Oxygen gas is added during the field emission process, and the uniformity of both emission area and brightness of a CNT pixel array are dramatically improved by 83% and 90%, respectively, without reducing emission stability. The underlying physical mechanism for the improvements is attributed to the fact that the oxygen oxidizes the highly emitting CNTs, resulting in their burning out. As a result, the emitting CNTs having a too high current are removed and more and more emitting CNTs with weak current can be stimulated at a higher field, leading finally to a balance of emission from each pixel in the array.