Field emission from a silicon surface potential well through a thin oxide

Abstract

The quantum well arises because band bending of silicon confines the electrons to a narrow surface region during field emission. Field emission from the surface potential well of silicon covered with a thin oxide layer is modelled using a conduction band effective potential and effective mass of the oxide. Based on an exact solution of the Schrödinger equation under the application of a linear potential field, the emission current density is represented by an Airy function. The results show that the existing thin oxide always reduces the emission current and the standard Fowler–Nordheim plot gives the two distinct linear regions.