Simple Theoretical Analysis of the Fowler-Nordehim Field Emission from Quantum Confined Optoelectronic Materials

摘要

We present a simplified analysis of Fowler-Nordheim field emission (FNFE) by considering the effect of image force from quantum wires (Qws) and quantum confined superlattices (SLs) of optoelectronic materials on the basis of newly formulated electron dispersion laws in the presence of intense electric field which modifies the band structure. It has been observed taking QWs of n-lnSb, n-GaAs, n-HgCdTe, n-InGaAsP and InAlSb/InSb, InGaAs/InGaAsP effective mass SLs together with SLs with graded interfaces that the FNFE increases with increasing film thickness due to the existence van-Hove singularity and the magnitude of the quantum jumps are not of same height indicating the signature of the band structure of the material concerned. The appearance of the humps of the respective curves is due to the redistribution of the electrons among the quantized energy levels when the quantum numbers corresponding to the highest occupied level changes from one fixed value to the others. The FNFE exhibits oscillations with inverse quantizing magnetic field and electron concentration due to SdH effect and increases with increasing electric field. Under certain limiting conditions, the results get transformed in to the well known Fowler-Nordheim formula, and thus confirming the compatibility test. The results of this paper find three applications in this field.