Field emission of individual carbon nanotubes in the scanning electron microscope

The field emission of individual multiwall carbon nanotubes grown by chemical vapor deposition was measured in a scanning electron microscope. By using a sharp anode, we were able to select one nanotube for measurements in carefully controlled conditions. Single nanotubes follow the Fowler-Nordheim law, and the dependence of the field enhancement with interelectrode distance and nanotube radius is in good agreement with the recent model of Edgcombe and Valdré. Our results suggest that only nanotubes with the highest field enhancement factors, i.e., at least 8x higher than those of the average nanotube population, contribute to the emitted current in usual large area measurements.