Tutorial Lecture on Field Electron Emission Theory

Abstract

This tutorial lecture will present aspects of the basic theory of cold field electron emission (CFE). The aim is to keep the physical and mathematical arguments at a level within the grasp of an average engineering graduate student. Part of the aim is to indicate more clearly the limitations of standard Fowler-Nordheim (FN) theory (which, of course, is a free-electron theory of tunnelling through a Schottky-Nordheim barrier, notionally at 0 K)