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Impact of ion induced changes on field emission in multi-walled carbon nanotubes

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Abstract

In the present paper, we have investigated the effects of low-energy argon (Ar) ion irradiation on the structural properties of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and their impact on field-emission (FE). The energy of Ar+ ions was kept constant at ~ 1.2 keV, while the irradiation fluences were varied from 5 × 1015 to 1.6 × 1017 ions/cm2. The structural changes induced due to low-energy ion irradiation were studied by micro Raman spectroscopy. The effect of structural modifications of MWCNTs on their FE characteristics has also been investigated and found to be greatly influenced. After ion irradiation, the MWCNTs with open tips could perform better electron emitter with low turn-on and threshold fields of 1.3 and 3.2 V/µm, respectively. The mean field enhancement factor (β) increases from 3356 for a pristine sample to 9469 for ion-irradiated MWCNTs. Thus, the ion-irradiated MWCNTs show better FE properties, which could open up promising practical applications.

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Acknowledgements

H. S. is thankful to the IIT Delhi for providing help in carried out SEM and TEM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Doon University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248009, India

    Himani Sharma

  2. Materials Nano and Research Laboratory, Department of Physics, School of Physical Sciences, DIT University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248009, India

    Vishakha Kaushik

  3. Department of Physics, School of Engineering, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248007, India

    Sachin Pathak

  4. Inter University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, 110067, India

    Dinesh C. Agarwal & D. K. Avasthi

  5. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, 110016, India

    A. K. Shukla & V. D. Vankar

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by HS. The first draft of the manuscript was written by VK and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Himani Sharma.

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Sharma, H., Kaushik, V., Pathak, S. et al. Impact of ion induced changes on field emission in multi-walled carbon nanotubes. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 1152 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-10533-4

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