Field-Induced Insulator to Semimetal Transition and Field Electron Emission of Nanorods of Semiconductors of Wide Energy Band Gaps

摘要

Significant field emission is found theoretically possible from nanorods ofsemiconductors of wide energy band gaps. If the nanorod has a thin surfacelayer containing a large number of localized states, a part of nanorod canexhibit an insulator-to-semimetal transition under high enough fields ofdirection parallel to its axis, so that field emission occurs at the apex ofthe metal like tip. The field emission property of silicon carbide nanorods isstudied as an example and found to be in qualitative agreement with theexperimental findings.