The resonant field electron emission from DLC film

A wide-gap thin film cathode of nanometer scale is drafted out. When an ano de voltage is applied, a double-triangle barrier will be formed inside the thin film on the substrate, so that the electron emission process is simila r to the tunneling in a double-barrier diode. In this paper, the electron-t unneling coefficient is calculated with a matrix approach, the emission cur rent being integrated with the Simpson quadrature method. It is found that both the tunneling coefficient and the emission current are of resonant pro perty. The resonant apex is sharp and the peak-to-peak value reaches six or ders of magnitude (10(6)). The resonant points that benefit the electron em ission are not few. In practical situation, the applied fields may be great ly intensified by the agglomerations of the local impurities, defects and t he interface states at the FEE surface; so the thickness may be well beyond the nanometer scale and the applied field intensity may be greatly reduced . (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.