Enhancement of field emission property from hills-like carbon nanotubes film

Improved field emission property of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is achieved by using NiTi alloy film as catalyst under optimized condition. The NiTi alloy films are prepared by magnetron co-sputtering process and the CNTs films are synthesized by thermal chemical vapor deposition. With the increase of the Ni/Ti ratio from 19 at.% to 95 at.%, the CNTs density increases from discrete cluster to dense network, and the optimized field emission property of CNTs film is found at the medium density. However, the field emission property is significantly enhanced when the Ni/Ti ratio is about 76 at.%, and it is supposed to attribute to the combined effect of the hills-like surface enhancement and the intrinsic emission properties of CNTs.