Electron emission from regular chain-like island structures

Abstract

Electron emission from island metal films (IMFs) composed of closely packed chains or islands is studied. The dependence or the emission current on the voltage applied to an IMF is linear in the coordinates In Ie versus 1/V. This indicates that both electron gas heating and lowering of the potential barriers in IMFs caused by a strong electron field are important. In addition to the stimulation of electron emission from chain-like IMFs by passing a current, an alternative way of feeding high density power into such films by laser irradiation is studied.