Fabrication and field emission property studies of vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes grown by double plasma chemical vapour deposition technique

The field emissive carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with nickel tips were grown by a novel technique, double plasma hot filament chemical vapor deposition technique. Surface morphologies and structure of the sample were studied by a field emission scanning electron microscope, high resolution transmission electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectroscopy. Field emission (FE) of the sample was observed with a threshold field of ~ 3.4 V/μm. The high enhancement factor β derived from the slope of Fowler-Nordheim is attributed to the isolated nature of CNTs and nickel present at the CNT tip.