Predicting space-charge affected field emission current from curved tips

Abstract

Field-emission studies incorporating the effect of space charge reveal that for planar emitters, the steady-state field EP, after initial transients, settles down to a value lower than the vacuum field EL. The ratio ϑ=EP/EL is a measure of the severity of space-charge effect, with ϑ=0 being the most severe and ϑ≃1 denoting the lack of significant effect. While EL can be determined from a single numerical evaluation of the Laplace equation, EP is largely an unknown quantity whose value can be approximately found using physical models or can be determined “exactly” by particle-in-cell or molecular dynamics codes. We propose here a simple model that applies to planar as well as curved emitters based on an application of Gauss’s law. The model is then refined using simple approximations for the magnitude of the anode field and the spread of the beam when it reaches the anode. The predictions are compared with existing molecular dynamics results for the planar case and particle-in-cell simulation results using PASUPAT for curved emitters. In both cases, the agreement is good. The method may also be applied to large area field emitters if the individual enhancement factors are known, for instance, using the hybrid model [D. Biswas, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 38, 063201 (2020)].