Possible cooling by resonant Fowler-Nordheim emission

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel electronic refrigeration method utilizing resonant Fowler-Nordheim emission, where a semiconductor film creates quantum well states that enable selective emission of hot electrons, leading to effective cooling.

Contribution

It introduces a new resonant emission-based cooling technique using a semiconductor film to achieve selective hot electron emission for refrigeration.

Findings

Cooling power up to 10^4 W/cm^2 at 300 K

Potential cooling down to 10 K

Resonant emission enhances electron selectivity

Abstract

A new method of electronic refrigeration based on resonant Fowler-Nordheim emission is proposed and analyzed. In this method, a bulk emitter is covered with a-few-nm-thick film of a widegap semiconductor, creating an intermediate step between electron energies in the emitter and in vacuum. An external electric field tilts this potential profile, forming a quantum well, and hence 2D electron subbands at the semiconductor-vacuum boundary. Alignment of the lowest subband with the energy levels of the hottest electrons of the emitter (a few $k_{B}T$ above its Fermi level) leads to a resonant, selective emission of these electrons, providing emitter cooling. Calculations show that cooling power as high as 10^{4} W/cm^{2} (at 300 K), and temperatures down to 10 K may be achieved using this effect.