Charge transport effects in field emission from carbon nanotube-polymer composites

Electron field emission measurements have been made on multiwall arc discharge carbon nanotubes embedded in a conjugated polymer host. Electron emission at low nanotube content is observed and attributed to an enhancement of the applied electric field at the polymer/nanotube/vacuum interface where the electron supply through the film is attributed to fluctuation induced tunneling in a disordered percolation network. A high network resistance is attributed to a polymer coating surrounding each nanotube, resulting in high resistance nanotube-polymer-nanotube tunnel junctions. The potential use of carbon nanotube-polymer composites for field emission based displays is also discussed. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.