A cathode

ray tube contains a positively charged region (the anode) and a negatively
charged region (the cathode). The cathode is located at the back of the tube. As
electrons exit the cathode, they are attracted to the anode. The electrons are also
focused electronically into a tight beam, which passes into the central area of the
television screen. The central region is almost free of air, so that there are few air
molecules to deflect the electrons from their path. The electrons travel to the far
end of the tube where they encounter a flat screen. The screen is coated with a
molecule called phosphor. When an electron hits a phosphor, the phosphor
glows. The electron beam can be focused in a coordinated way on different part of
the phosphor screen, effectively painting the screen (a raster pattern). This
process occurs very quickly—about 30 times each second—producing multiple
images each second. The resulting pattern of glowing and dark phosphors is what
is interpreted by the brain as a moving image.

Black and white television was the first to be developed, as it utilized the simplest
technology. In this technology, the phosphor is white. Color television followed,
as the medium became more popular, and demands for a more realistic image
increased. In a color television, three electron beams are present. They are called
the red, green, and blue beams. Additionally, the phosphor coating is not just
white. Rather, the screen is coated with red, green, and blue phosphors that are
arranged in stripes. Depending on which electron beam is firing and which color
phosphor dots are being hit, a spectrum of colors is produced. As with the black
and white television, the brain reassembles the information to produce a
recognizable image.

Read more: Television - Operation Of The Cathode Ray Tube - Phosphor, Screen,
Electron, White, Electrons, and Beam
http://science.jrank.org/pages/6738/Television-Operation-cathode-ray-
tube.html#ixzz19TPkISyX

The Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)

In simple terms, a monitor operates very similarly to how your regular television set
works. The principle is based upon the use of an electronic screen called a cathode ray
tube or CRT, which is the major (and most expensive) part of a monitor. The CRT is
lined with a phosphorous material that glows when it is struck by a stream of electrons.
This material is arranged into an array of millions of tiny cells, usually called dots. If you
look up close at your monitor (or use a magnifying glass) you can see these dots.

At the back of the monitor is a set of electron guns, which produce a controlled stream of
electrons, much as the name implies. To produce a picture on the screen, these guns start
at the top of the screen and scan very rapidly from left to right. Then, they return to the
left-most position one line down and scan again, and repeat this to cover the entire
screen. In performing this scanning

or sweeping type motion, the electron guns are controlled by the video data stream
coming into the monitor from the video card, which varies the intensity of the electron
beam at each position on the screen. This control of the intensity of the electron beam at
each dot is what controls the color and brightness of each pixel on the screen. This all
happens extremely quickly, and in fact the entire screen is drawn in a small fraction of a
second.

There are three electron guns (on a color monitor) that control the display of red, green
and blue light respectively. The surface of the CRT is arranged to have these dots placed
adjacently in a specific pattern. There are separate video streams for each color coming
from the video card, which allows the different colors to have different intensities at each
point on the screen. By varying the intensity of the red, green and blue streams, the full
rainbow of colors is made possible.

The surface of the CRT only glows for a small fraction of a second before beginning to
fade. This means that the monitor must redraw the picture many times per second to
avoid having the screen flicker as it begins to fade and then is renewed. This rapid
redrawing is called "refreshing" the screen.

The CRT is the heart of the monitor and is discussed in much more detail in its own
section.

In electrical circuits

Nanotube-based transistors, also known as carbon nanotube field-effect transistors

(CNFETs), have been made that operate at room temperature and that are capable of
digital switching using a single electron.[101] However, one major obstacle to realization of
nanotubes has been the lack of technology for mass production. In 2001 IBM researchers
demonstrated how metallic nanotubes can be destroyed, leaving semiconducting ones
behind for use as transistors. Their process is called "constructive destruction" which
includes the automatic destruction of defective nanotubes on the wafer.[102] This process,
however, only gives control over the electrical properties on a statistical scale.

The potential of carbon nanotubes was demonstrated in 2003 when room-temperature

ballistic transistors with ohmic metal contacts and high-k gate dielectric were reported,
showing 20–30x higher ON current than state-of-the-art Si MOSFETs. This presented an
important advance in the field as CNT was shown to potentially outperform Si. At the
time, a major challenge was ohmic metal contact formation. In this regard, palladium,
which is a high work function metal was shown to exhibit Schottky barrier-free contacts
to semiconducting nanotubes with diameters >1.7 nm.[103][104]

The first nanotube integrated memory circuit was made in 2004. One of the main
challenges has been regulating the conductivity of nanotubes. Depending on subtle
surface features a nanotube may act as a plain conductor or as a semiconductor. A fully
automated method has however been developed to remove non-semiconductor tubes.[105]

Another way to make carbon nanotube transistors has been to use random networks of
them. By doing so one averages all of their electrical differences and one can produce
devices in large scale at the wafer level.[106] This approach was first patented by Nanomix
Inc.[107](date of original application June 2002[108] ). It was first published in the academic
literature by the United States Naval Research Laboratory in 2003 through independent
research work. This approach also enabled Nanomix to make the first transistor on a
flexible and transparent substrate.[109][110]

Large structures of carbon nanotubes can be used for thermal management of electronic
circuits. An approximately 1 mm–thick carbon nanotube layer was used as a special
material to fabricate coolers, this materials has very low density, ~20 times lower weight
than a similar copper structure, while the cooling properties are similar for the two
materials.[111]

Overall, incorporating carbon nanotubes as transistors into logic-gate circuits with

densities comparable to modern CMOS technology has not yet been demonstrated.

[edit] As paper batteries

A paper battery is a battery engineered to use a paper-thin sheet of cellulose (which is the
major constituent of regular paper, among other things) infused with aligned carbon
nanotubes.[112] The nanotubes act as electrodes; allowing the storage devices to conduct
electricity. The battery, which functions as both a lithium-ion battery and a
supercapacitor, can provide a long, steady power output comparable to a conventional
battery, as well as a supercapacitor’s quick burst of high energy—and while a
conventional battery contains a number of separate components, the paper battery
integrates all of the battery components in a single structure, making it more energy
efficient.[citation needed]

[edit] Solar cells

Solar cells developed at the New Jersey Institute of Technology use a carbon nanotube
complex, formed by a mixture of carbon nanotubes and carbon buckyballs (known as
fullerenes) to form snake-like structures. Buckyballs trap electrons, although they can't
make electrons flow. Add sunlight to excite the polymers, and the buckyballs will grab
the electrons. Nanotubes, behaving like copper wires, will then be able to make the
electrons or current flow.[113]