Numerical simulation of field emission from a semiconductor wedge nanotip

This paper reports on a theoretical investigation and numerical simulation of hot electron transport in a wedge n-type silicon field microemitter with a nano-edge. The emission characteristics of a cell have been simulated using highly efficient parallel processing. This study shows that electron heating drastically affects field emission from a silicon microcathode and impact ionization may contribute markedly to electron transport. Heavy local electron heating may also result in cathode edge instability due to intensive energy exchange between the electron gas and the lattice.