Li Yimeng, Xia Linghan, Li Nan, Tang Shilong, Ge Yunsong, Wang Jianyu, Xiao Bing, Cheng Yonghong, Ang Lay Kee, Meng Guodong
State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, P.R. China.
Science, Mathematics and Technology, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore, Singapore.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 1;16(1):5583. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60607-6.
Field electron emission is a key mechanism in nanoelectronics with nanogaps, offering advantages such as high electron velocity and fast switching speeds. However, nanoscale field emission, affected by geometric asymmetry including quantum tunneling near to the emitter, and quantum space charge effects, remains largely unexplored in experimental studies. Here, we in situ investigated field emission characteristics of pure tungsten nanotips across vacuum nanogaps. We revealed a widely applicable scaling behavior between field emission characteristics and the ratio of apex radius to gap length (R/d), and demonstrated that the effects of quantum tunnelling due to emitter shape are the predominant influence. We further proposed a modified field emission equation, incorporating an empirical formula for the apex shape factor, k (k = f(R/d) = 1.680 × (R/d + 0.468)), valid for R/d = 0.04 to 48. These findings provide fundamental insights into the optimization of nanoelectronic device design and the advancement of future technologies.
场电子发射是具有纳米间隙的纳米电子学中的关键机制，具有电子速度高和开关速度快等优点。然而，受包括发射极附近量子隧穿和量子空间电荷效应在内的几何不对称性影响的纳米级场发射，在实验研究中仍基本未被探索。在此，我们原位研究了纯钨纳米尖端在真空纳米间隙上的场发射特性。我们揭示了场发射特性与顶点半径与间隙长度之比（R/d）之间广泛适用的标度行为，并证明了发射极形状引起的量子隧穿效应是主要影响因素。我们进一步提出了一个修正的场发射方程，纳入了顶点形状因子k的经验公式（k = f(R/d) = 1.680 × (R/d + 0.468)），适用于R/d = 0.04至48。这些发现为纳米电子器件设计的优化和未来技术的进步提供了基本见解。
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