The impact of semiconductor surface states on vacuum field emission
Name
165701_1_online.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.91 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
e0e44e892e11d8c99f96d0104882314b
Author(s)
Kim, Taeyoung
Joishi, Chandan
Shih, Pao-Chuan
Palacios, Tomás
Rajan, Siddharth
Date Issued
October 26, 2022
Journal
Journal of Applied Physics
Publisher
AIP Publishing
Citation
Taeyoung Kim, Chandan Joishi, Pao-Chuan Shih, Tomás Palacios, Siddharth Rajan; The impact of semiconductor surface states on vacuum field emission. J. Appl. Phys. 28 October 2022; 132 (16): 165701.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
This work presents a theoretical analysis of the impact of surface states on vacuum field emission currents in semiconductors. In wide and ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors such as GaN and AlGaN, low electron affinity has been proposed as a benefit for field emission into vacuum. However, in these materials, the surface Fermi level at the surface is pinned well below the conduction band, and the surface depletion barriers due to the surface Fermi level pinning can be comparable to or higher than the electron affinity. Therefore, analysis of field emission requires consideration of not only the vacuum potential barrier set by electron affinity, but also the depletion region near the semiconductor surface. In this paper, we develop analytical models to predict field emission currents with careful consideration of the impact of surface states on the energy band alignment. The results are used to provide guidelines for design of field emitters that could benefit from the low electron affinity of semiconductors such as Al(Ga)N.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Microsystems Technology Laboratories
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
10.1063/5.0105657
