Great improvement in adhesion and uniformity of carbon nanotube field emitters through reactive nanometer-scale SiC fillers

We developed highly adhesive uniform field emitters (FEs) from carbon nanotube (CNT) pastes by reacting nanometer-scale silicon carbide (SiC) fillers on a Kovar substrate at a high temperature in vacuum. The reaction of SiC on Kovar results in significant morphological changes at the substrate–composite interface along with moderate Si diffusion into the substrate, enhancing adhesion of CNT FEs to the substrate greatly. Furthermore, a post surface-treatment after the reaction of SiC fillers results in very uniform CNT FEs over an entire emitter pattern of several hundred micrometers. The strongly enhanced adhesion and uniformity of the CNT FEs, in turn, give stable and reliable field emission even at a high current density. The applicability of the SiC/CNT FEs was evaluated in super-miniature X-ray tubes where any detachment of materials including outgassing from the inner side of the tubes should be avoided. The smallest super-miniature CNT X-ray tube to date, with an outer diameter of 2.0 mm, shows good operation with X-ray imaging at an anode voltage of above 25 kV, confirming almost no outgassing and strong substrate adhesion of the CNT FEs.