Carbon nanotubes beam electrons
The scientists who work with carbon nanotubes have big dreams for the tiny objects, including superfast electronics and hard spaceship materials. To date, however, few applications using the nanoscale carbon cylinders have been realized.
Now, a team from the Netherlands and France has taken a step toward making carbon nanotubes the electron sources for machines such as high-resolution electron microscopes.
Beams of electrons in microscopes are generally produced by heating or applying an electric field to a metal tip. The new work, reported in the Nov. 28, 2002 Nature, shows that carbon nanotubes could be superior electron sources.