Onset of current self-quenching in a metal/CdS/LaS cold cathode in the presence of inelastic scattering in the CdS layer

Abstract

We use an ensemble Monte-Carlo approach to analyze the importance of space-charge effects in the cathode to anode gap region of a recently proposed metal/CdS/LaS cold cathode and its influence on the energy distribution of the electrons collected at the anode. Our analysis is based on a mean-free path approach to include the effects of inelastic scattering in the CdS layer following Fowler–Nordheim injection across the metal/CdS interface. We investigate in detail the regime of current self-quenching and show the importance of the effects of space charge in narrowing the energy of the electron beam collected at the anode. We compare our results to an analytical treatment of the current self-quenching regime based on a hydrodynamic description of electron transport through the gap.