Field electron emission mechanism in an ultrathin multilayer planar cold cathode

摘要

Field electron emission from an ultrathin multilayer planar cold cathode(UMPC) including quantum well structure has been both experimentally andtheoretically investigated. We found that only tuning the energy levels of UMPCthe field electron emission (FE) characteristic can be evidently improved,which is unexplained by the conventional FE mechanism. Field electron emissionmechanism dependent on the quantum structure effect, which supplies a favorablelocation of electron emission and enhances tunneling ability, has beenpresented to expound the notable amelioration. An approximate formula broughtforward can predict the quantum FE enhancement, which the theoreticalprediction is close to the experimental result.