Progress in securing the foundations of field-assisted electron emission theory

This paper presents the results of a re-examination of the wave-mechanical theory of electron emission across an exact triangular barrier. This is a fourth-generation treatment of a problem first addressed by Fowler and Nordheim in 1928, subsequently by other researchers. The outcome is a transparent derivation of an exact general analytical formula (previously found by Jensen) and the identification of numerous special cases in which specific approximations to the general formula apply.