Direct in situ Electron Microscope synthesis of CNTs with applied electric Field and Field Emission

This work reports experiments on the oriented growth by electric field of free-standing carbon nanotubes(CNTs) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) for field emission (FE) applications. The growths were observed in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and in an environmental transmission electron microscope (ETEM) with the ETEM growths observed in real time. The effects of various applied voltage during growth will be presented. For high voltages, videos show that the maximum length of CNTs are limited either by the mechanical breakdown or FE induced thermal evaporation. Finally, the I(V) curves and current densities obtained will be presented with a focus on the different destruction mechanisms.