A fresh look at thermal field emission from tungsten tip

Authors

AHMED ABDURRAHMAN AHMED AL-TABBAKH

DOI

10.3906/fiz-1105-16

Abstract

Electron emission from clean tungsten tips has been investigated at different temperatures and applied electric field. Emission mechanism is analyzed on the basis of the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) model and a parameter extraction model based on elimination of field enhancement factor. The suggested extraction model of the physical and geometrical parameters is found fairly adequate to resolving the apparently confusing behavior of these parameters and shedding light on the emission mechanism. The observed linear FN plots at low temperatures confirm the predominating effect of the applied field on the electron emission. At elevated temperatures, emission is found to fall in the intermediate region between field emission and thermionic emission, therefore known as thermal-field emission.

Keywords

Field electron emission, Fowler-Nordheim theory, parameter extraction model

First Page

271

Last Page

278

Recommended Citation

AL-TABBAKH, AHMED ABDURRAHMAN AHMED (2012) "A fresh look at thermal field emission from tungsten tip," Turkish Journal of Physics: Vol. 36: No. 2, Article 13. https://doi.org/10.3906/fiz-1105-16
Available at: https://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/physics/vol36/iss2/13