Semi-analytical theory of emission and transport in a LAFE-based diode

TL;DR

This paper introduces a semi-analytical approach to model emission and electron transport in large-area field emitters, enabling accurate predictions with less computational effort compared to purely numerical simulations.

Contribution

It presents a semi-analytical method to accurately simulate emission and transport in LAFE devices using simple geometric information, reducing reliance on intensive numerical methods.

Findings

Accurately predicts emission current and beam parameters.

Reproduces energy conservation and trace-emittance with reasonable accuracy.

Validates the method with 1- and 9-emitter configurations.

Abstract

A large area field emitter (LAFE) typically consists of several thousands of nanoscale emitting tips. These are difficult to simulate using purely numerical methods based on finite/boundary element or finite difference methods. We show here that a semi-analytically obtained electrostatic field allows tracking of field emitted electrons of a LAFE fairly accurately using the knowledge of only the LAFE geometry. Using a single and a 9-emitter configuration, the beam parameters calculated using this method are compared with the results of tracking using fields generated by COMSOL. The net emission current, energy conservation and the transverse trace-emittance are found to be reproduced with reasonable accuracy.