On-Chip Thermionic Electron Emitter Arrays Based on Horizontally Aligned Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Thermionic electron emitter, a critical component in vacuum electronic devices, usually suffers from bulky size, difficulty to integrate, and slow temporal response. Here, to overcome these problems, we fabricate and test a new miniature electron emitter: on-chip thermionic electron emitter arrays based on horizontally aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes. The devices are fabricated and integrated on a Si chip with microfabrication technologies, providing compactness as well as fast temporal response. Emitter arrays with a packing density of up to $\sim \textsf {0.4}\times 10^{7}$ emitters/cm 2 and an emission density of 1.73 mA/cm 2 at a bias voltage of 2.64 V are realized. The turn-on/off response times of the devices are measured to be ~150/500 ns, which are 5 orders of magnitude faster than those of their bulky counterparts. The advantages of on-chip nature, high degree of integration, and fast temporal response make the thermionic emitter arrays promising in miniature vacuum electronic devices.