Effect of electrode geometry on the vacuum breakdown behaviors at nanoscale

Abstract

The micro/nano devices have been widely used for the past decades. However, as one of the major factors to restrict the performance of the devices, the insulation failure mechanism at nanoscale is still unclear. Basically, the insulation performance in vacuum is related to the electrode geometry, electrode materials, gap size and applied voltage, etc. To better understand the mechanism of vacuum breakdown at nanoscale, the present work focuses on the effect of electrode geometry on nanoscale breakdown in vacuum. The effect of the electrode geometry would be investigated experimentally and the mechanism would also be discussed in the paper.