No Arabic abstract
In this paper, we model the evolution and self-assembly of randomly oriented carbon nanotubes (CNTs), grown on a metallic substrate in the form of a thin film for field emission under diode configuration. Despite high output, the current in such a thin film device often decays drastically. The present paper is focused on understanding this problem. A systematic, multiphysics based modelling approach is proposed. First, a nucleation coupled model for degradation of the CNT thin film is derived, where the CNTs are assumed to decay by fragmentation and formation of clusters. The random orientation of the CNTs and the electromechanical interaction are then modeled to explain the self-assembly. The degraded state of the CNTs and the electromechanical force are employed to update the orientation of the CNTs. Field emission current at the device scale is finally obtained by using the Fowler-Nordheim equation and integration over the computational cell surfaces on the anode side. The simulated results are in close agreement with the experimental results. Based on the developed model, numerical simulations aimed at understanding the effects of various geometric parameters and their statistical features on the device current history are reported.
Owing to their distinct properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have emerged as promising candidate for field emission devices. It has been found experimentally that the results related to the field emission performance show variability. The design of an efficient field emitting device requires the analysis of the variabilities with a systematic and multiphysics based modeling approach. In this paper, we develop a model of randomly oriented CNTs in a thin film by coupling the field emission phenomena, the electron-phonon transport and the mechanics of single isolated CNT. A computational scheme is developed by which the states of CNTs are updated in time incremental manner. The device current is calculated by using Fowler-Nordheim equation for field emission to study the performance at the device scale.
Electronic transport through a single-wall metallic carbon nanotube weakly coupled to one ferromagnetic and one nonmagnetic lead is analyzed in the sequential tunneling limit. It is shown that both the spin and charge currents flowing through such systems are highly asymmetric with respect to the bias reversal. As a consequence, nanotubes coupled to one nonmagnetic and one ferromagnetic lead can be effectively used as spin diodes whose functionality can be additionally controlled by a gate voltage.
Carbon nanotube Schottky diodes have been fabricated in an all-photolithographic process using dissimilar contact metals on high-frequency compatible substrates (quartz and sapphire). Diodes show near-ideal behavior, and rectify currents of up to 100 nA and at frequencies up to 18 GHz. The voltage and frequency dependence is used to estimate the junction capacitance of ~10-18 F and the intrinsic device cut-off frequency of ~400 GHz.
We report the radio-frequency performance of carbon nanotube array transistors that have been realized through the aligned assembly of highly separated, semiconducting carbon nanotubes on a fully scalable device platform. At a gate length of 100 nm, we observe output current saturation and obtain as-measured, extrinsic current gain and power gain cut-off frequencies, respectively, of 7 GHz and 15 GHz. While the extrinsic current gain is comparable to the state-of-the-art the extrinsic power gain is improved. The de-embedded, intrinsic current gain and power gain cut-off frequencies of 153 GHz and 30 GHz are the highest values experimentally achieved to date. We analyze the consistency of DC and AC performance parameters and discuss the requirements for future applications of carbon nanotube array transistors in high-frequency electronics.
We propose a mechanism to substantially rectify radiative heat flow by matching thin films of metal-to-insulator transition materials and polar dielectrics in the electromagnetic near field. By leveraging the distinct scaling behaviors of the local density of states with film thickness for metals and insulators, we theoretically achieve rectification ratios over 140-a 10-fold improvement over the state of the art-with nanofilms of vanadium dioxide and cubic boron nitride in the parallel-plane geometry at experimentally feasible gap sizes (~100 nm). Our rational design offers relative ease of fabrication, flexible choice of materials, and robustness against deviations from optimal film thicknesses. We expect this work to facilitate the application of thermal diodes in solid-state thermal circuits and energy conversion devices.