Simple theoretical analysis of the Fowler-Nordheim field emission from microstructures and quantum wires of optoelectronic materials

Bhattacharya, S and De, D and Adhikari, SM and Saha, S and Chatterjee, KM and Choudhury, S and Ghatak, KP (2011) Simple theoretical analysis of the Fowler-Nordheim field emission from microstructures and quantum wires of optoelectronic materials. In: Superlattices and Microstructures, 50 (6). pp. 609-627.

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Abstract

We present a simplified theoretical formulation of the Fowler-Nordheim field emission (FNFE) under magnetic quantization and also in quantum wires of optoelectronic materials on the basis of a newly formulated electron dispersion law in the presence of strong electric field within the framework of k.p formalism taking InAs, InSb, GaAs, Hg(1-x)Cd(x)Te and In(1-x)Ga(x) As(y)P(1-y) lattice matched to InP as examples. The FNFE exhibits oscillations with inverse quantizing magnetic field and electron concentration due to SdH effect and increases with increasing electric field. For quantum wires the FNFE increases with increasing film thickness due to the existence van-Hove singularity and the magnitude of the quantum jumps are not of same height indicating the signature of the band structure of the material concerned. The appearance of the humps of the respective curves is due to the redistribution of the electrons among the quantized energy levels when the quantum numbers corresponding to the highest occupied level changes from one fixed value to the others. Although the field current varies in various manners with all the variables in all the limiting cases as evident from all the curves, the rates of variations are totally band-structure dependent. Under certain limiting conditions, all the results as derived in this paper get transformed in to well known Fowler-Nordheim formula. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Superlattices and Microstructures
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier Science.
Keywords:	FNFE;Quantizing magnetic field;Quantum wires;Quantum confined optoelectronic materials
Department/Centre:	Division of Electrical Sciences > Electronic Systems Engineering (Formerly Centre for Electronic Design & Technology)
Date Deposited:	27 Jan 2012 06:42
Last Modified:	27 Jan 2012 06:42
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/43158

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