Improving the extraction of characteristic field enhancement factors from nonlinear Fowler–Nordheim plots: Call for experimental tests

Abstract

The author shows that the dependence between the effective emission area and the macroscopic electric field allow for the introduction of a new correction, ω, in the elementary slope characterization parameter (SCP) for extracting the characteristic field enhancement factor, γC, from (precise) orthodox cold-field electron emission measurements. The authors assume that the local macroscopic enhancement factors, γ, are Gaussian-distributed, as has been experimentally determined for the potential candidates of cold-field electron emission applications. Using the recent developments in cold-field electron emission theory, the authors found that for the typical experimental range of 1 V/μm ≤ FM ≤ 10 V/μm, the nonlinearities that are often observed in cold-field electron emission experiments may appear in JM-FM-type Fowler–Nordheim plots. Finally, our results show that depending on the dispersion in the distribution of γ, Δγ/γ0, where γ0 is the average value, the error in estimating the γC using the elementary SCP (a common practice for experimentalists) may be relevant.