Field emission in diode and triode vacuum nanostructures

TL;DR

This paper models nano-diode and nano-triode vacuum electronic structures with dielectric films and resonant tunneling, providing detailed electrostatic and tunneling calculations to optimize low-voltage electron guns.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive electrostatic and tunneling analysis of nano-vacuum structures with dielectric films and resonant tunneling, advancing design insights for low-voltage electron guns.

Findings

Calculated potential barriers and tunneling coefficients for nano-structures.

Demonstrated the feasibility of low-voltage electron guns with these structures.

Provided Green's function and VAC calculations for device optimization.

Abstract

The paper discusses the nano-diode and nano-triode structures of vacuum electronics. Such structures may have the dielectric film with the thickness of several nanometers wich is located on the cathode. Such film with a large dielectric constant reduces the thickness of the potential barrier by about film thickness and reduces the height of barrier. The grid electrode structure may contain several periods of metallization with a thickness of tens of nanometers, which allows one to obtain the resonant under barrier tunneling. For all structures we obtained electrostatic Green's function, the built profiles potential barriers, the calculated tunneling coefficients and Volt-Ampere Characteristics (VAC) with regard to the distribution of electron energies. The structures under consideration require to use of low voltages on the gate (grid) electrodes. They are promising for the electron gun with a large current controlled by low voltage on the grid, for example, in TWT with subsequent acceleration of the electron beam. Since a major influence on the tunneling provides the grid, the electrons emitted from the grid with approximately the Fermi velocity, and the calculation of the electron gun with multiple electrodes after the grid is greatly simplified.