Analytic study on cold field electron emission from metallic nanowall array

TL;DR

This paper provides a theoretical analysis of cold field electron emission from metallic nanowall arrays, deriving formulas for emission parameters and exploring how spacing and field effects influence emission efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces an analytic approach using conformal mapping to model emission from nanowalls, highlighting optimal spacing for maximum current density.

Findings

Optimal nanowall spacing is a linear function of nanowall height.

Field enhancement and screening effects significantly influence emission.

Derived formulas enable better design of nanowall emitters.

Abstract

The cold field electron emission from metallic nanowall array is investigated theoretically. Via conformal mapping method, analytic formulas of tunneling barrier, edge field enhancement factor, transmission coefficient, and area emission current density are derived in the semi-classical approximation. The influence of field enhancement effects and screening effects on cold field emission are discussed and the optimal spacing distance between nanowalls for the largest emission current density is found to be a linear function of the height of nanowalls and depends on the applied field.