Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Field Emission From a Planar Nanodiode

TL;DR

This paper uses molecular dynamics simulations with Coulomb interactions to study field emission in planar nanodiodes, analyzing space charge effects, emitter radius, and comparing results to classical emission laws.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed molecular dynamics approach incorporating Coulomb interactions and compares it with a simplified fluid model for field emission analysis.

Findings

Simulations reveal effects of space charge on emission current.

Emitter radius influences transition between emission regimes.

Fluid model qualitatively agrees with detailed molecular dynamics results.

Abstract

High resolution molecular dynamics simulations with full Coulomb interactions of electrons are used to investigate field emission in planar nanodiodes. The effects of space charge and emitter radius are examined and compared to previous results concerning transition from Fowler-Nordheim to Child-Langmuir current. The Fowler-Nordheim law is used to determine the current density injected into the system and the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm to find a favourable point of emission on the emitter surface. A simple fluid like model is also developed and its results are in qualitative agreement with the simulations.