FIELD-EMISSION FROM SILICON INCLUDING CONTINUUM ENERGY AND SURFACE QUANTIZATION

The quantum well in the surface of silicon arises from band bending wh ich confines electrons to a narrow surface region during field emissio n. Based on the Wentzel-Kramer-Brillouin (WKB) approximation, a theory is presented for field emission from both the bulk with the continuum energy and the potential well with the quantized energy. The theory s hows no exponential rise in emission current as the field increases at higher fields. The estimated emission current is also higher than tha t predicted by the classical theory. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.