We have fabricated carbon tubule coils in nanometer scale (called nanocoils) and found that they are a good candidate for the electron emission devices rather than carbon nanotubes. This is attributed to their specula helical morphology and the larger number of emission sites uniformly dispersed in the carbon nanocoil field emitter arrays. The field emission from carbon nanocoils with different diameters and lengths shows that the turn-on voltages of carbon nanocoil field emitters are dependent on the diameters of the coiled tubules. Decreasing the thickness of iron film and the flow rate of acetylene gas can decrease the average diameter of grown carbon nanocoils. Decreasing the growth time can proportionally decrease the average length of the coils. Furthermore, increasing the growth temperature increases the density and length of the carbon nanocoils. It is expected to use carbon nanocoils with small diameter and short length to fabricate high performance flat panel display, which can be driven at low voltage and has high resolution and brightness.