Enhanced Field Electron Emission of Graphene Sheets by CsI Coating after Electrophoretic Deposition

Because of the large quantities of edges, grapheae can serve as an efficient edge emitter for field emission (FE). Cesium iodide (CsI) coating was promising to enhance the electron emission and utilized in FE applications. In this work, FE of graphene sheets after electrophoretic deposition (ED) was studied. Electron emission property of GS was obviously improved by coating with CsI. The turn-on field of GS decreased from 4.4 to 2.5 V/mu m; and threshold field decreased from 9 to 5.8 V/mu m, respectively. This FE improvement must due to a higher effective density of emission site generated around the GS surface after coating. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and computation were taken to reveal the influence after coating. Investigations of CsI coated MWCNTs were also compared in order to better understand the origin of the low turn-on electric field obtained by GS.