Atomic decoration for improving the efficiency of field electron emission of carbon nanotubes

The field electron emission from the single-walled carbon nanotubes with their open ends terminated by -BH, -NH, and O- has been simulated. We find that -BH and -NH suppress the apex-vacuum barrier significantly and lead to higher emission current in contrast to the O--terminated structure. The calculated binding energy implies that the carbon nanotubes terminated with -BH and -NH are more stable than those saturated by oxygen atoms or by hydrogen atoms. The simulation shows that the most probable orientation of the emission beam has correlation to the atomic structure of the apex and is field-dependent.