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Controlled surface damage of amorphous and crystalline carbon nanotubes for enhanced field emission
Author(s) -
Maity Supratim,
Das Nirmalya Sankar,
Chattopadhyay Kalyan Kumar
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.201248514
Subject(s) - high resolution transmission electron microscopy , materials science , field electron emission , carbon nanotube , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , transmission electron microscopy , amorphous solid , amorphous carbon , irradiation , field emission microscopy , ion , scanning electron microscope , carbon fibers , argon , analytical chemistry (journal) , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , electron , composite number , composite material , optics , chemistry , crystallography , diffraction , physics , organic chemistry , chromatography , quantum mechanics , nuclear physics , engineering
The effect of argon (Ar) ion treatment on the field‐emission (FE) properties of amorphous carbon nanotubes (aCNTs) and crystalline multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) is reported in this article. Under optimum Ar‐ion irradiation conditions, the FE properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been found to improve. The turn‐on field of MWCNTs downshifted from 2.81 to 0.85 V μm −1 and from 9.17 to 3.27 V μm −1 for aCNTs. Improvement of the FE behavior is associated with the morphological modifications of CNTs, as a result of Ar‐ion irradiation. Ar‐ion bombardment creates defect sites on the CNT surface as confirmed by various techniques such as field‐emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). We have proposed that the defects caused modifications of the CNT surfaces resulting in an effective increment of the field‐enhancement factor β .