Zinc oxide nanowires (ZNW) were grown on a vertically-aligned carbon nanotube mesh array (VACM), of which the field emission properties were determined and compared with bare ZNW and bare VACM, respectively. The ZNW-VACM combined structure produced a macroscopic turn-on field of 0.8 V/mu m and a threshold field of 2.3 V/mu m, which was found to be much lower than that of bare ZNW. Crucially, field emission from ZNW-VACM was much more stable and uniform than that from bare VACM and exhibits a current fluctuation of less than 0.5% in 80 h with a current density of similar to 1 mA/cm(2), making it a promising field emitter for field emission backlighting and displays. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.