The effect of Ar neutral beam treatment of screen-printed carbon nanotubes for enhanced field emission

This study examined the effectiveness of an Ar neutral beam as a surface treatment for improving the field emission properties of screen-printed carbon nanotubes (CNTs). A short period of the neutral beam treatment on tape-activated CNTs enhanced the emission properties of the CNTs, showing a decrease in the turn-on field and an increase in the number of emission sites. The neutral beam treatment appeared to render the CNT surfaces more actively by exposing more CNTs from the CNT paste without cutting or kinking the already exposed long CNT emitters. The treated CNTs emitted more electrons than the CNTs treated using other methods. When the field emission properties were measured after the neutral beam treatment, the turn-on field decreased from 1.65 to 0.60 Vμm and the emission field at 1 mA cm2 decreased from 3.10 to 2.41 Vμm. After the neutral beam treatment for 10 s, there was an improvement in the stability of the emission current at a constant electric field. It is expected that the neutral beam treatment introduced in this study will provide an easy way of improving the emission intensity and stability of screen-printed CNT emitters.