Self-aligned, gated arrays of individual nanotube and nanowire emitters

Gangloff, L and Minoux, E and Teo, KBK and Vincent, P and Semet, VT and Binh, VT and Yang, MH and Bu, IYY and Lacerda, RG and Pirio, G and Schnell, JP and Pribat, D and Hasko, DG and Amaratunga, GAJ and Milne, WI and Legagneux, P (2004) Self-aligned, gated arrays of individual nanotube and nanowire emitters. Nano Letters, 4. pp. 1575-1579. ISSN 1530-6984

Abstract

We demonstrate the production of integrated-gate nanocathodes which have a single carbon nanotube or silicon nanowire/whisker per gate aperture. The fabrication is based on a technologically scalable, self-alignment process in which a single lithographic step is used to define the gate, insulator, and emitter. The nanotube-based gated nanocathode array has a low turn-on voltage of 25 V and a peak current of 5 μA at 46 V, with a gate current of 10 nA (i.e., 99% transparency). These low operating voltage cathodes are potentially useful as electron sources for field emission displays or miniaturizing electron-based instrumentation.