Field emission properties of N-doped capped single-walled carbon nanotubes: A first-principles density-functional study

The geometrical structures and field emission properties of pristine and N-doped capped (5,5) single-walled carbon nanotubes have been investigated using first-principles density-functional theory. The structures of N-doped carbon nanotubes are stable under field emission conditions. The calculated work function of N-doped carbon nanotube decreases drastically when compared with pristine carbon nanotube, which means the enhancement of field emission properties. The ionization potentials of N-doped carbon nanotubes are also reduced significantly. The authors analyze the field emission mechanism in terms of energy gap between the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital and the highest occupied molecular orbital, Mulliken charge population, and local density of states. Due to the doping of nitrogen atom, the local density of states at the Fermi level increases dramatically and donor states can be observed above the Fermi level. The authors' results suggest that the field emission properties of carbon nanotubes can be enhanced by the doping of nitrogen atom, which are consistent with the experimental results. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.