Simple planar field-electron emitter using highly crystalline single-walled carbon nanotubes in a triode structure with in-plane under-gate electrode

The authors investigated the field-electron emission characteristics of a planar field-emission (FE) electron source with a planar conductive layer as a gate electrode embedded under a cathode composed of highly crystalline single-walled carbon nanotubes (hc-SWCNTs) as an emitter. They designed a flat-panel electron emission device that could control electron emission switching arbitrarily, and the device stably emitted electrons on the flat panel. After they assembled the FE electronic device using a wet chemical process, they attained low power consumption and high luminance efficiency. These results show that the application of hc-SWCNTs effectively conserves energy in FE electron sources. The fabrication of FE electron sources and other devices with ultra-low power consumption, along with applications that utilize such devices, is expected in the future. (C) 2019 Author(s).