We report on a systematic study of modulation of the field emission current from carbon nanowalls using a sharp probe as the anode in an ultrahigh vacuum system. Modulation of the local emission current was achieved by either varying the anode-cathode distance (d) with the aid of an AC magnetic field or superimposing a small AC bias on a DC bias during the field emission measurement. Current modulation ratio of over two orders of magnitude was achieved with the modulation becoming more efficient at a smaller d. The experimental results are discussed using the Fowler-Nordheim theory in combination with a simple cantilever model to account for the modulation effect. The experimental results demonstrated good static stability and dynamic controllability of local field emission current from the carbon nanowalls.
Photoluminescent carbon nanotubes are expected to become versatile room-temperature single-photon sources that have applications in quantum information processing. Quantum emission from carbon nanotubes is often induced by localization of excitons or exciton-exciton annihilation. Here, we modify the local energy landscape of excitons by decorating nanoscale pentacene particles onto air-suspended single-walled carbon nanotubes. Directional exciton diffusion from the undecorated region to the decorated site is demonstrated, suggesting exciton trapping induced by local dielectric screening from p…
We probe the high frequency emission of a carbon nanotube based Josephson junction and compare it to its DC Josephson current. The AC emission is probed by coupling the carbon nanotube to an on-chip detector (a Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor junction), via a coplanar waveguide resonator. The measurement of the photo-assisted current of the detector gives direct access to the signal emitted by the carbon nanotube. We focus on the gate regions that exhibit Kondo features in the normal state and demonstrate that when the DC supercurrent is enhanced by the Kondo effect, the AC Josephson e…
A hollow cathode source with a specially designed cusp magnetic field B whose z component is a function of radius and the azimuth angle, provides clustering environment to the sputtered carbon atoms and ions. The distinctive features of the source are its sooting properties that depend upon the two well-defined regions within the discharge. The cusp field drives both of these regions but in different modes. One region ionizes the source gas, introduces the sputtered carbon from the graphite hollow cathode while the other is the collision dominated gyration motion of the positive carbon ions al…
We report the observation of Coulomb blockade in field electron emission (FE) from single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), which is manifested as pronounced steps in the FE current-voltage curves and oscillatory variations in the energy distribution of emitted electrons. The appearance of the Coulomb blockade is explained by the formation of nanoscale protrusions at the apexes of SWCNTs due to the electric field-assisted surface diffusion of adsorbates and carbon adatoms. The proposed adsorbate-assisted FE mechanism is substantially different from the well-known resonant tunneling associated wi…
We demonstrate an individual single-walled carbon nanotube light emitter integrated onto a microcavity and a waveguide operating in the telecom wavelength regime. Light emission from the carbon nanotube is enhanced at the cavity resonance and is efficiently extracted from the waveguide facet. We have transferred carbon nanotubes to a nanobeam cavity with a dry process, ensuring that an individual carbon nanotube is used. The guided light emission from a chirality-identified single carbon nanotube has a narrow linewidth of less than 1.3 nm and an off-resonance rejection of $\sim$17 dB. The wave…
