Effect of Electrical Aging on Field Electron Emission from Screen-Printed Carbon Nanotube Film

We investigated the effect of electrical aging on field electron emission from a screen-printed carbon nanotube (CNT) film. After maintaining the field-emission current density at 20 mA/cm2 for 3 h in the DC mode, it was observed that initially long CNTs became short and initially lying CNTs stood up. As a result, the field-emission uniformity and lifetime were markedly improved. From the analysis of the corresponding Fowler–Nordheim plots using a temperature-dependent formula, the shortening of CNTs by electrical aging was found to originate from the thermal evaporation of carbon atoms at the tip of CNTs during field electron emission.