Self-organized regular arrays of carbon nanocones induced by ultrashort laser pulses and their field emission properties

Periodic, self-organized carbon nanocone structures with a spatial period of up to 170 nm (less than 1/5 laser wavelength) are induced by exposing a graphite surface to a single beam 800 nm ultrashort pulsed laser. When a linearly polarized laser beam is used, the nanocones are aligned perpendicularly to the direction of polarization. This paper also demonstrates the fabrication of large-area carbon nanocone structures. The resulting carbon nanocones show a field emission performance with a turn-on electric field of as low as 3.2 V/μm.