Two-process model of electron field emission from nanocarbons: Temperature effect

摘要

The two-process model on electron field emission from nanocarbons that we recently suggested [ I. S. Altman, P. V. Pikhitsa, and M. Choi, Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 1126 (2004) ] has solved the existing experimental puzzles such as an occurrence of the sharp knee in the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) plot. Our model implies two successive processes: (1) Tunneling from the metallic region into the semiconducting region under the external macroscopic electric field and (2) tunneling from the semiconducting region into vacuum under the Coulomb field of an additional electron appearing in the first process. However, this model in its original form was inapplicable at finite temperatures. We develop the model (remaining within the framework of the two-process approach, which allows the knee occurrence in the FN plot) in order to describe temperature effects in field emission from nanocarbons. Fitting of the recent experimental data on the temperature behavior of field emission from carbon nanotubes allowed us to extract parameters corresponding to the first process in our model. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.