A quantum mechanical model of field emission from a graphene blade type material.

We present a simple quantum perturbative full dimensionality model to study field emission from a graphene blade within the frame of the Bardeen transfer Hamiltonian formalism. The material electronic wavefunction is obtained for a multidimensional square well potential specifically designed to reproduce two important characteristics of the material, the Fermi level, and the shape of the emitting orbitals. The wavefunction in the vacuum between the electrodes is obtained with a close coupling method in a finite domain. Our model provides the emitted current density with respect to the applied field. This allows us to discriminate the different functional forms proposed to fit the Fowler–Nordheim emission curves. Our model also provides information on emission patterns. Electron total energy distributions are computed for different field intensities and compared with other theoretical and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]