Thermal-Field Electron Emission from Three-Dimensional Cd3As2

The emergence of quantum materials with nonparabolic dispersions like graphene have signal the beginning of a paradigm shift in the choice of materials for field emission. Like graphene, the unconventional Dirac conic band structure in cadmium arsenide Cd
3
As
2
, a 3D topological Dirac semimetal (TDS) hints a possibility of it being an excellent field emitter. This differing band structure allows the appearance of a non-trivial dual peak feature in its total energy distribution (TED), which can be utilized to garner a larger current density. The commonly used Murphy and Good (MG) model for thermal-field emission could not accurately model Cd
3
As
2
due to its F
³
scaling law in the cold field emission limit. These findings show that Cd
3
As
2
, or other similar 3D TDS, has the potential to achieve a low turn-on field, which is a highly sought-after property in field emission physics.