Carbon nanotube electron sources for electron microscopes

Abstract

Electron sources were made from individual multi-walled carbon nanotubes with closed caps and thoroughly cleaned surfaces. Nanotubes from both chemical vapor deposition growth and arc discharge growth were investigated. These emitters provide a highly stable emission current up to a threshold current of a few microamperes. At too large currents several processes take place such as splitting, breaking and cap closing. The emission process is field emission for a workfunction of 5 eV. The electron optical per-formance is highly beneficial for their use as high-brightness point sources in electron microscopes and advantageous with respect to state-of-the-art electron sources. The life-time is at least two years. We have tested the source successfully in a scanning electron microscope.