This article is cited in 5 papers

Low dimensional systems

Field electron emission form single-walled carbon nanotubes with deposited cesium atoms

A. L. Musatov^a, K. R. Izrael'yants^a, E. G. Chirkova^a, A. V. Krestinin<sup>b

a</sup> Kotelnikov Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
^b Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Chernogolovka, Moscow oblast, 142432, Russia

Abstract: It has been found that deposition g of cesium atoms on single-walled carbon nanotubes covered with potassium atoms not only drastically increases emission current but also considerably changes the shape of current-voltage characteristics of field electron emission, namely, the characteristics become nonlinear in Fowler–Nordheim coordinates. It has been assumed that this effect is associated with the fact that field electron emission in these layers comes from single-walled carbon nanotubes, which have $p$-type conductivity after potassium treatment, while deposition of cesium leads to the formation of $p$–$n$ junctions near nanotube tips. Part of the applied voltage drops in $p$–$n$ junction, thus causing a nonlinearity of current-voltage characteristics.

Received: 29.12.2010

 English version: Physics of the Solid State, 2011, 53:7, 1504–1508

Bibliographic databases:

•