Emergence of a non-Fowler-Nordheim-type behavior for a general planar tunneling barrier

Abstract

In this work we investigate a generalized tunneling barrier for planar emitters at zero-temperature. We present the evidence of the emergence of a non-Fowler-Nordheim-type general behavior for the field emission current density in the case that the Fermi energy ($\mu$) is comparable with or smaller that the decay width ($d_F$). Therefore, for some non-metals or materials that have very small Fermi energy the standard Fowler-Nordheim-type theory may require a correction. In the opposite regime, i.e., for $\mu$ much larger that $d_F$, we confirm that the conventional theory is suitable for metals.