Zinc oxide nanopencil arrays were synthesized on pyramidal Si( 1 0 0) substrates via a simple thermal evaporation method. Their field emission properties have been investigated: the turn-on electric field (at the current density of 10 mu A/cm(2)) was about 3.8 V/mu m, and the threshold electric field (at the current density of 1 mA/cm(2)) was 5.8 V/mu m. Compared with similar structures grown on. at Si substrates, which were made as references, the pyramidal Si-based ZnO nanopencil arrays appeared to be superior in field emission performance, thus the importance of the non-flat substrates has been accentuated. The pyramidal Si substrates could not only suppress the field screening effect but also improve the field enhancement effect during the field emission process. These findings indicated that using non-flat substrates is an efficient strategy to improve the field emission properties. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.