Relative contributions to the emission within bundles of carbon nanocone emitters

Abstract

Herein, an original design of electron source based on an array of carbon nanocone bundles has been modeled. The contribution to the emission within bundles is investigated using a cold emission model based on the WKB approximation. The case of a specific bundle is presented where the geometry of the nanocones leads to a change of the main emitter as the voltage is ramped up. This change is shown to alter the linearity of usual Fowler-Nordheim analysis of the simulated I(V) data.