Remarkably low turn-on field emission in undoped, nitrogen-doped, and boron-doped graphene

Field emission studies have been carried out on undoped as well as N- and B-doped graphene samples prepared by arc-discharge method in a hydrogen atmosphere. These graphene samples exhibit very low turn-on fields. N-doped graphene shows the lowest turn-on field of 0.6 V/mu m, corresponding to emission current density of 10 mu A/cm(2). These characteristics are superior to the other types of nanomaterials reported in the literature. Furthermore, emission currents are stable over the period of more than 3 h for the graphene samples. The observed emission behavior has been explained on the basis of nanometric features of graphene and resonance tunneling phenomenon. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3464168]