Electrical and field-emission properties of chemically anchored single-walled carbon nanotube patterns

Abstract

Well-defined and high-density single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) patterns were fabricated using a combination of photolithographic and chemical assembling processes. Unlike the patterned SWNT arrays reported thus far, these SWNT patterned layers have high-density multilayer structures and excellent surface adhesion due to their direct chemical bonding to their substrates, which results in high electrical conductivity. We found that the high-density multilayer SWNT patterns emit electrons under an applied electrical field. The electrical resistivities of the SWNT layers were found to be $5–10\Omega \mathrm{cm}$ , with a turn-on electric field of about $3\mathrm{V}∕\mu \mathrm{m}$ at an emission current density of $10\mu \mathrm{A}∕{\mathrm{cm}}^2$ . This technique for fabricating SWNT patterns can be used in the production of field-emission displays and in future device integration requiring carbon nanotubes (CNTs), because it provides large-area patterning of SWNTs with high stability and uniformity.