Secondary nanotube growth on aligned carbon nanofibre arrays for superior field emission.

We report substantial improvement of the field emission properties from aligned carbon nanotubes grown on aligned carbon nanofibres by a two-stage plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) process. The threshold field decreased from 15.0 to 3.6 V/microm after the secondary growth. The field enhancement factor increased from 240 to 1480. This technique allows for superior emission of electrons for carbon nanotube/nanofibre arrays grown directly on highly doped silicon for direct integration in large area displays.