General form of the tunnelling barrier for nanometrically sharp electron emitters

Abstract

Field electron emission from nanometer-scale objects deviates from the predictions of the classical emission theory as both the electrostatic potential curves within the tunneling region and the image potential deviates from the planar one. This impels the inclusion of additional correction terms in the potential barrier. At the apex of a tip-like rotationally symmetric surface, these terms are proportional to the (single) local emitter curvature. The present paper generalizes this relation, showing that for any emitter geometry, the coefficient of the correction terms is given by the mean curvature, i.e. the average of the two principal curvatures.

References in corpus (5)

• A general computational method for electron emission and thermal effects in field emitting nanotips
• Field Emission Characterization of MoS2 Nanoflowers
• Scale invariance of a diodelike tunnel junction
• The tunneling potential for field emission from nanotips
• Nanosecond Photoemission near the Potential Barrier of a Schottky Emitter

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Formation of field-induced breakdown precursors on metallic electrode surfaces