Abstract Submitted to the NANOTUBE'02 Workshop:

As a unique class of one-dimensional nanostructured material, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have promising properties for potential applications in vacuum microelectronic, sensor and energy storage devices. However, difficulties in materials fabrication and integration have hindered their eventual utilization. In this talk we report progress on fabrication of functional structures of CNTs and understanding of the relation between the macroscopic properties and the higher-level architecture by which the CNTs assemble. Results on fabrication and optimization of diode and triode-type CNT electron field emission structures will be presented. Experiments on fabrication of Langmuir-Blodgett type CNT films will be reported. In particular we show that ordered and periodic structures of CNTs can be readily self-assembled at room temperature from the liquid phase. The electron field emission characteristics of these structures will be discussed. Prototype vacuum electronic devices based on these cold-cathodes will be presented. This work was carried out in collaboration with S.J. Oh, B. Gao, H. Shimoda, H.Z. Geng, Y. Cheng, J. Zhang, Q.Qiu and G.Z. Yue at UNC, and was supported by ONR MURI and NASA.