IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v7y2016i1d10.1038_ncomms11513.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tunable graphene micro-emitters with fast temporal response and controllable electron emission

Author

Listed:
  • Gongtao Wu

    (Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Peking University)

  • Xianlong Wei

    (Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Peking University)

  • Song Gao

    (Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Peking University)

  • Qing Chen

    (Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Peking University)

  • Lianmao Peng

    (Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Peking University)

Abstract

Microfabricated electron emitters have been studied for half a century for their promising applications in vacuum electronics. However, tunable microfabricated electron emitters with fast temporal response and controllable electron emission still proves challenging. Here, we report the scaling down of thermionic emitters to the microscale using microfabrication technologies and a Joule-heated microscale graphene film as the filament. The emission current of the graphene micro-emitters exhibits a tunability of up to six orders by a modest gate voltage. A turn-on/off time of less than 1 μs is demonstrated for the graphene micro-emitters, indicating a switching speed about five orders of magnitude faster than their bulky counterparts. Importantly, emission performances of graphene micro-emitters are controllable and reproducible through engineering graphene dimensions by microfabrication technologies, which enables us to fabricate graphene micro-emitter arrays with uniform emission performances. Graphene micro-emitters offer an opportunity of realizing large-scale addressable micro-emitter arrays for vacuum electronics applications.

Suggested Citation

  • Gongtao Wu & Xianlong Wei & Song Gao & Qing Chen & Lianmao Peng, 2016. "Tunable graphene micro-emitters with fast temporal response and controllable electron emission," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11513
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11513
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11513
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms11513?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11513. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.