The quantum mechanics of ion-enhanced field emission and how it influences microscale gas breakdown
Abstract
The presence of a positive gas ion can enhance cold electron field emission by deforming the potential barrier and increasing the tunneling probability of electrons—a process known as ion-enhanced field emission. In microscale gas discharges, ion-enhanced field emission produces additional emission from the cathode and effectively reduces the voltage required to breakdown a gaseous medium at the microscale (<10 μm). In this work, we enhance classic field emission theory by determining the impact of a gaseous ion on electron tunneling and compute the effect of ion-enhanced field emission on the breakdown voltage. We reveal that the current density for ion-enhanced field emission retains the same scaling as vacuum cold field emission and that this leads to deviations from traditional breakdown theory at microscale dimensions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Sep 12, 2014
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4895634
Entities
People
- David B Go
- Yingjie Li
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- University of Notre Dame