  Multiwalled carbon nanotubes have been produced by ethylene catalytic
chemical vapor deposition and used to fabricate thick and dense freestanding
films ("buckypapers") by membrane filtering. Field emission properties of
buckypapers have been locally studied by means of high vacuum atomic force
microscopy with a standard metallic cantilever used as anode to collect
electrons emitted from the sample. Buckypapers showed an interesting linear
dependence in the Fowler-Nordheim plots demonstrating their suitability as
emitters. By precisely tuning the tip-sample distance in the submicron region
we found out that the field enhancement factor is not affected by distance
variations up to 2um. Finally, the study of current stability showed that the
field emission current with intensity of about 3,3*10-5A remains remarkably
stable (within 5% fluctuations) for several hours.

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics;Materials Science