Field-electron emission from polyimide-ablated films

Polyimide-ablated film was deposited by using pulsed laser ablation of a po lyimide target, and field-electron emission from the film was observed for the first time. The turn-on field of the polyimide-ablated film is 12 V/mu m. The current density is 0.725 mA/cm(2), and the emission sites density is on the order of 10(6)/cm(2) at the applied field of 24V/mu m. The field-el ectron emission measurements indicate that this kind of film could be a new cold cathode material. It is suggested that the graphite-like clusters con tained in the film play an important role in the field-electron emission.