Field emission of carbon nanotube array with normal-gate cold cathode

A hexagon pitch carbon nanotube (CNT) array vertical tothe normal gate of cold cathode field emission displayer (FED) issimulated by solving the Laplace equation. The calculated resultsshow that the normal gate causes the electric field around the CNTtops to be concentrated and emission electron beam become a column.The field enhancement factor and the emission current intensity stepup greatly compared with those of diode structure. Emission currentdensity increases rapidly with the decrease of normal-gate aperture.The gate voltage exerts a critical influence on the emissioncurrent.