Field Emission Devices Based on a Hybrid of Carbon Nanotubes and Carbide-Derived Carbons

Abstract

The fabrication of a field-emission device using a hybrid material of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbide-derived carbons (CDCs) as emitter is reported. To prepare the hybrid emitter, the CNTs were directly grown on the CDCs by chemical vapor deposition. In comparison with the CNTs, the resulting CNT-CDC hybrid materials showed a low turn-on voltage, high emission current density, and high beta value. The CNT-CDC emitters also achieved a significant improvement in terms of long-term emission stability, which can be attributed to the synergistic coupling effects of the CNTs and CDCs. The findings suggest that the CNT-CDC hybrid materials can be a potential candidate as an emitter for high-performance field emission device.