We fabricated a cold cathode-driven x-ray source with vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs). Dose and spatial resolution characteristics are compared to commercially available portable x-ray sources, and our system outperformed its counterparts. At the same 1.0 mAs condition, our x-ray source represented a dose rate of 0.37 mGy/s, which is 7.8 and 2.4 times greater than that of the thermionic emitter and paste carbon nanotubes based commercial x-ray sources, respectively. In addition, our x-ray source represented better image resolution by achieving a nominal focal spot size of 0.35 mm. We believe that high quality x-ray properties were attained, thanks to the narrow electron beam divergence and high reduced brightness of the electrons from VACNTs, and that this will open up advanced x-ray applications.

中文翻译：

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用门控垂直排列的碳纳米管场发射器制造高质量 X 射线源

我们用垂直排列的碳纳米管 (VACNT) 制造了冷阴极驱动的 X 射线源。将剂量和空间分辨率特性与商用便携式 X 射线源进行比较，我们的系统优于同类系统。在相同的 1.0 mAs 条件下，我们的 X 射线源代表的剂量率为 0.37 mGy/s，分别比基于热电子发射器和糊状碳纳米管的商用 X 射线源高 7.8 倍和 2.4 倍。此外，我们的 X 射线源通过实现 0.35 毫米的标称焦斑尺寸表现出更好的图像分辨率。我们相信，由于窄电子束发散角和来自 VACNT 的电子的高度降低的亮度，可以获得高质量的 X 射线特性，这将开辟先进的 X 射线应用。