Improved field emission from indium decorated multi-walled carbon nanotubes

• Published in: Applied surface science 2016-10, Vol.383, p.84-89
• Main Authors: Sreekanth, M., Ghosh, S., Biswas, P., Kumar, S., Srivastava, P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Decoration; Density of states; Electron tunneling; Enhancement factor; Fermi level; Fermi surfaces; Field emission; Indium; Metal particles; Multi wall carbon nanotubes; Multi-walled carbon nanotubes; Temporal stability; Thermal CVD
• ISSN: 0169-4332; 1873-5584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2016.04.170

Improved field emission properties have been achieved for Indium (In) decorated MWCNTs and are shown using the schematic of field emission set up with In/CNT cathode, and a plot of J-E characteristics for pristine and In decorated CNTs. [Display omitted] •Field emission (FE) properties have been studied for the first time from Indium (In) decorated MWCNT films.•Observed increased density of states near the Fermi level for In decorated films.•Superior field emission properties have been achieved for In decorated CNT films. Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) films were grown using thermal chemical vapor deposition (T-CVD) process and were decorated with indium metal particles by thermal evaporation technique. The In metal particles are found to get oxidized. The In decorated films show 250% enhancement in the FE current density, lower turn-on and threshold fields, and better temporal stability as compared to their undecorated counterpart. This improvement in field emission properties is primarily attributed to increased density of states near the Fermi level. The presence of O 2p states along with a small contribution from In 5s states results in the enhancement of density of states in the vicinity of the Fermi level.