탄소 나노튜브에 대한 비정질 질화막의 코팅 및 전계방출 특성

Abstract

Coating of amorphous nitride thin layers, such as boron nitride (BN) and carbon nitride (CN), has been performed on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for the purpose of enhancing their electron-emission performances because those nitride films have relatively low work functions and commonly exhibit negative electron affinity behavior. The CNTs were directly grown on metal-tip (tungsten, approximately 500 nm in diameter at the summit part) substrates by inductively coupled plasma-chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD). Sharpening of the tungsten tips were carried out by electrochemical etching. Morphologies and microstructures of BN and CN films were analyzed by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The electron-emission properties (such as maximum emission currents and turn-on fields) of the BN-coated and CN-coated CNT-emitters were characterized in terms of the thickness of BN and CN layers.