Carbon Nanotube Electron Sources: From Electron Beams to Energy Conversion and Optophononics
Figure 13
(a) Solar electron source based on a carbon nanotube forest in a portable glass vacuum chamber under test on a sunny day in Vancouver, BC. A glass lens approximately 5 cm in diameter is sufficient for inducing solar thermionic emission. Compare the size and simplicity of this device with the structure shown in Figure 12; (b) current-voltage characteristics of a nanotube-based thermionic convertor, showing both the power consumption and the power generation regimes of operation (reprinted from [194]).
