Field electron emission mechanism in an ultrathin multilayer planar cold cathode

Field electron emission from an ultrathin multilayer planar cold cathode (UMPC) including quantum well structure has been both experimentally and theoretically investigated. We found that only tuning the energy levels of UMPC the field electron emission (FE) characteristic can be evidently improved, which is unexplained by the conventional FE mechanism. Field electron emission mechanism dependent on the quantum structure effect, which supplies a favorable location of electron emission and enhances tunneling ability, has been presented to expound the notable amelioration. An approximate formula brought forward can predict the quantum FE enhancement, which the theoretical prediction is close to the experimental result.