Emission characteristics of metal–oxide–semiconductor electron tunneling cathode

Abstract

We have fabricated a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) electron tunneling cathode with ultrathin SiO2 and examined the emission characteristics. We found that the emission occurred from an entire gate area by electron tunneling through the potential barrier in the MOS diode and the emission current was 0.7% of the total current flowing through the diode. The emission was also found to be nearly independent of pressure.