Peculiarities of charge transfer under cold field emission from carbon nanotubes cathodes

Abstract

The conductivity of the emitter section of a nanodiode circuit with an emitter made of an individual closed carbon nanotube (CNT) and arrays of closed CNTs was studied. High values of cold field emission were observed, as well as nonlinearity and anomalies of the current-voltage characteristic (CVC), which manifested themselves in the form of peaks at low and high current values. Peaks in the CVC have distinct areas of negative differential conductivity. The anomalously high currents in the I–V characteristics of cold field emission of electrons from a nanoemitter made of closed CNTs can be associated with a sharp increase in the density of electron states at energies near the van Hove singularity.