Using infrared laser to enhance field emission of carbon nanotube

Abstract

Infrared laser has been used to irradiate carbon nanotube (CNT) powders and the performance of CNT emitter was enhanced. The CNTs were prepared by conventional electric arc discharge method and laser irradiation was processed by Nd:YAG infrared laser with a wavelength of 1064nm. It was found that the turn-on electric field was significantly decreased for laser treated sample. As compared to the sample of no laser treatment, the emission current density was enhanced by a magnitude of 16.56 for 225J∕cm2 treated plus annealing one. Possible mechanism is discussed here.