Curvature correction to the field emission current

Abstract

The curvature of field emitter tips leads to an altered tunneling potential that assumes significance when the radius of curvature is small. We provide here an analytical curvature-corrected formula for the field emission current from smooth vertically aligned emitter tips and test its applicability across a range of apex radius, $R_a$, and local electric field, $E_a$. It is found to give excellent results for $R_a > 10$nm with errors generally less than $10\%$. Surprisingly, for the uncorrected potential, we find the errors to be high even at $R_a = 100$nm ($ > 35\%$ at $E_a = 3$V/nm) and conclude that curvature correction is essential for apex radius less than a micron.