Selection of nanostructures for porous field-emission display

— This paper describes the evaluation of nanostructures to be integrated into porous field‐emission displays (pFEDs), based on a multilayer of copper and polyimide, pierced by holes. The evaluation work is based on diode‐mode measurements performed with carbon nanotubes and nanostructured copper oxide samples obtained through wet chemical processes. A special characterization tool, based on the curve method, was used to obtain current vs. field characteristics in a repetitive and reproducible method. Histograms of threshold fields for 46 samples are presented, allowing for a comparison between different methods of nanostructure formation, which shows that carbon nanotubes yield a threshold field which is at least five times smaller than that for copper oxides.