Field emission is a process whereby electrons tunnel through a barrier in the presence of a strong electric field. The electron sources of field electron emission can be utilized in many applications such as field emission microscope, field electron emission flat panel displays and many other vacuum microelectronic devices. In this work we describe calculations of the tunneling transmission coefficient using two model potentials that simulate the field electron emission process from a solid. These models potentials were presented in previous works, in which the tunnelling rate was calculated. We utilize one-dimensional model potentials which is chosen to yield a reasonable physical representation of the real system. An external electric field F is applied in order to narrow the potential barrier, allowing the electrons to tunnel out of the metal. In model 1 the image potential is used only near the surface. In model 2 the image potential is used in all regions. In order to calculate the electronic transmission through the surface barrier we have used the semi-classical (JWKB) approximation. We present analytical Fowler-Nordheim-type equations for the electron tunneling probability.
field emission; tunneling probability; Fowler-Nordheim equation
