Sinha, N., Mahapatra, D.R., Yeow, J.T.W., Melnik, R.V.N.
Proc. of the 10th Annual NSTI Nanotech Conference, Santa Clara, CA, USA, May 20-24, pp. 76--79, 2007
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are currently among the best field emitters for a variety of technological applications. However, from mathematical viewpoint, approach towards understanding the physics of nanotube based field emission of a thin film is currently unavailable in the physics literature. A detailed and accurate analysis is important for long-term and efficient performance of the CNT-baseed field emission device. In this work, a modeling approach has been devloped, which handles several complexities at the device scale. From device design point of view, this work sheds light on the coupling issues related to the mechanics, the thermodynamics, and the process of collective field emission from CNTs in a thin film. All the mathematical treatments are combined and solved to calculate the output current using Fowler-Nordheim (FN) equation. The trend in the simulated results matches qualitatively well with the results of published experimental studies.
Keywords: carbon nanotube, field emission, current density, electrodynamics, phonons