Dimensional Quantization and the Resonance Concept of the Low-Threshold Field Emission

Georgy Fursey,Boris Pavlov,Pavel Konorov,Adil Yafyasov

doi:10.3390/electronics4041101

Georgy Fursey, Boris Pavlov + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics4041101

Copy DOI

Abstract

We present a brief critical review of modern theoretical interpretations of the low-threshold field emission phenomenon for metallic electrodes covered with carbon structures, taking the latest experiments into consideration, and confirming the continuity of spectrum of resonance states localized on the interface of the metallic body of the cathode and the carbon cover. Our proposal allowed us to interpret the double maxima of the emitted electron’s distribution on full energy. The theoretical interpretation is presented in a previous paper which describes the (1 + 1) model of a periodic 1D continuous interface. The overlapping of the double maxima may be interpreted taking into account a 2D superlattice periodic structure of the metal-vacuum interface, while the energy of emitted electrons lies on the overlapping spectral gaps of the interface 2D periodic lattice.

Highlights

We present a brief critical review of modern theoretical interpretations of the low-threshold field emission phenomenon for metallic electrodes covered with carbon structures, taking the latest experiments into consideration, and confirming the continuity of spectrum of resonance states localized on the interface of the metallic body of the cathode and the carbon cover
See for instance [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8], extremely low-threshold field emission from the carbon nano-clusters was observed for electric fields (104 − 105 V/cm)
We suggested in [2,3,7] an alternative explanation of the threshold lowering based on the dimensional quantization in the under-surface space-charge region on the metal-graphene interface

Summary

Brief Review of Modern Experiments in the Low-Threshold Field Emission

See for instance [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8], extremely low-threshold field emission from the carbon nano-clusters was observed for electric fields (104 − 105 V/cm). Despite the obviously unusual nature of the effect, numerous authors, see for instance [6,8], have attempted to explain the low-threshold phenomenon trivially with use of the classical Fowler-Nordheim machinery, based on the enhancing of the field at the micro-protrusions. They assume that the local field Fs near the emitting center is calculated as F0 = γF0 , where γ is the field enhancement coefficient, defined by the micro-geometry, and F0 is the field of the equivalent flat capacitor. The corresponding formula for the transmission coefficient was derived [7] for the general 1D model of the space-charge region, with complex discrete spectrum of the surface levels

The Resonance Interpretation

Discussion

Conclusions