A monolithic electron beam amplified carbon nanotube field emission cell

This article reports the fabrication and characterization of a CNT field emission cell with a built-in electron beam source for electron excited amplified field emission. A monolithic lateral field emission cell (FEC) with integrated metallic anode was fabricated. Then the field emission behaviors with and without activation of the built-in electron beam were characterized in diode configuration. A high voltage of 1.8 kV was applied to generate the bombarding electron beam on the FEC. The emission current of the FEC increases markedly with the activation of the electron beam source due to impact ionization and direct interaction with the FEC CNT cathode. The emission behaviors were confirmed by F–N plots. It was found that almost 10 times current amplification was achieved. These results demonstrate the feasibility of an electron beam amplified field emission using carbon nanotube emitters.