Memristive model of hysteretic field emission from carbon nanotube arrays

TL;DR

This paper models hysteretic field emission from carbon nanotube arrays as memristive systems, providing a framework that aligns with experimental observations of low-field hysteresis caused by electrostatic nanotube alignment.

Contribution

It introduces a memristive model for hysteretic field emission in nanotube arrays, linking experimental results with theoretical modeling.

Findings

Experimental demonstration of low-field hysteresis in nanotube arrays

Electrostatic nanotube alignment causes hysteresis

Model predictions agree with experimental data

Abstract

Some instances of electron field emitters are characterized by frequency-dependent hysteresis in their current-voltage characteristics. We argue that such emitters can be classified as memristive systems and introduce a general framework to describe their response. As a specific example of our approach, we consider field emission from a carbon nanotube array. Our experimental results demonstrate a low-field hysteresis, which is likely caused by an electrostatic alignment of some of the nanotubes in the applied field. We formulate a memristive model of such phenomenon whose results are in agreement with the experimental results.