Effect of surface treatment on printed carbon nanotube field emitters

The effects of different surface treatments on printed carbon nanotube thick-film field emitters are described. Surface treatments using chemical etching and physical plasma etching techniques were purposely developed. The surface morphology and field emission properties of the carbon nanotube emitters after different surface treatments were characterized. It was found that the etching processes can effectively improve the field emission property through increasing the extent of protrusion of carbon nanotubes out of the surface of emitters, resulting in an increase in the field enhancement factor p.