Gated carbon nanotube field emission enhancement and regeneration by hydrogen

We report large increases in field emission current when operating carbon nanotubes in substantial pressures of hydrogen, especially when the nanotubes were contaminated. We have previously demonstrated two different configurations of integrally gated carbon nanotube field emitter arrays (cNTFEAs), CNTs grown inside microfabricated gate apertures with and without silicon posts [ 1 -4]. Salient features of these in-situ grown microgated cNTFEAs include the absence of electrical arcing, low operating voltage, and enhancing effect of some residual ambient gases. Operating both configurations of cNTFEAs without special pre-cleaning in greater than 10(-5) Torr hydrogen produced orders of magnitude enhancement in emission. For a cNTFEA intentionally degraded by oxygen, the operation in hydrogen resulted in a 340-fold recovery in emission. The results suggested a dependence on atomic hydrogen produced from the interaction between emission electrons and molecular hydrogen. The observed emission enhancement could be due to removal of oxygen-containing surface species, a surface dipole formation, or hydrogen doping.