Abstract: In this first part of the article, basics of field emission will be presented which will be utilized within the second part of the article for the architecture effectuation of new Carbon Nanotube (CNT) – based controlled nano switches. To implement the field emission CNT – based controlled switch, four field emission CNTs that have single carbon nanotubes as the emitters were tested; two with single-walled CNT and two with multi-walled CNT. A tube with a tungsten tip was also used for comparison. The Fowler-Nordheim analysis of the DC current-voltage data provided reasonable values for the sizes and local fields of emitters. It is also shown within the new implementation of the controlled switch that square-wave pulses from a single laser diode with 20 mW power and 658 nm wavelength which is focused on each emitter increased the emitted current by 5.2% with the CNT and 0.19% with the compared tungsten tip.
Key words: Carbon Nanotubes, Controlled Switching, Fowler-Nordheim Analysis, Field Emission, Nanotechnology.