On field emission from a semiconducting substrate

Abstract

A theoretical examination of field emission from the conduction band of a semiconducting substrate is reported. The analysis includes a comparison with Fowler–Nordheim theory, and it is concluded that the formalism of the Fowler–Nordheim theory is incorrect when applied to carriers originating from a semiconducting substrate. The use of a Fowler–Nordheim analysis results in an error in the extraction of the barrier height that is dependent upon the applied electric field across the oxide, conduction band offset, and temperature. A lower limit of the error was calculated to be between 5% and 15%. An analytical expression is developed to describe the field emission of electrons from the conduction band of a semiconductor.