Methods for characterization of atomic-scale field emission point-electron-source

Methods for characterization of atomic-scale field emission point-electron-source | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Methods for characterization of atomic-scale field emission point-electron-source Shaozhi Deng, Shuai TANG, Mingkai Gou, Yingzhou Hu, Jie Tang, and 5 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8883179/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Field emission (FE) electron sources are made close to atomic-scale to reach the highest spatial resolution as well as stable emission for electron microscopy, electron beam inspection and lithography. At present, no single agreed method exists of using FE current-voltage data to extract the apparent emission area, which is needed for predicting some beam properties. The 1956 theory of Murphy and Good (MG) is better physics than the 1920s theory of Fowler and Nordheim (FN) and colleagues, but many researchers use simplified FN theory to analyse experimental data. The present paper reports an experimental method of finding apparent emission area, based on using field ion and field electron microscopes (FIM-FEM). The discrepancy of emission area between the FIM-FEM method and MG-based analysis is a factor of 7.4, while that with simplified FN-based analysis is about 25, confirming MG theory is better for FE data analysis. The result allows deduction of key indicators, including source energy spread, reduced brightness and emission efficiency. A downloadable program is made available to help analysis. Our work provide a new experimental method of characterizing FE electron sources, especially the atomic-scale cold cathode, for which existing plot-based data-analysis methods are not suitable. Physical sciences/Physics/Techniques and instrumentation/Characterization and analytical techniques Physical sciences/Physics/Condensed-matter physics/Electronic properties and materials Physical sciences/Nanoscience and technology/Techniques and instrumentation/Characterization and analytical techniques Physical sciences/Physics/Quantum physics/Quantum mechanics Field emission Fowler-Nordheim FE theory Murphy-Good FE theory field ion microscopy field electron microscopy emission area atomic-scale Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryMaterialsMethodsforcharacterizationofatomicscalefieldemissionpointelectronsource.docx Supplementary Materials Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8883179","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":599995740,"identity":"aea5fa73-7cd8-4529-94ff-e136f6f57707","order_by":0,"name":"Shaozhi Deng","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA90lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYJACCQYGGwYGZuYGmIABfvVsYC1pQC2MpGk5DGQRq0V+fvvDmz/+nI/mb2dsYPzZVpfYwN68TYKh5g5OLQbHeIyteXhu5844zNjAzNt2OLGB51iZBMOxZ7i1sPGwSTNI3M5tAGlhbDuQ2CCRYybB2HAYt8Pa2J9J/jA4lzv/MMxh8m/wa2E4xmAmwZNwIHcDUAsDbxsz0BYe/FoMjuUA/XIgOXcjUMthnnOHjdt40ootEo7hcVjzcVCI2eXOO3/44MMfZXWy/eyHN974UIPHYcjgACMbOKIYGBKI0wACf4hXOgpGwSgYBSMHAAA6fFPktsfIxAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1830-2026","institution":"State Key Lab of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Lab of Display Material and Technology, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shaozhi","middleName":"","lastName":"Deng","suffix":""},{"id":599995741,"identity":"c294a1ed-70c5-4d88-803b-58e78fe01412","order_by":1,"name":"Shuai TANG","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0086-9104","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shuai","middleName":"","lastName":"TANG","suffix":""},{"id":599995742,"identity":"65c47dc4-b1f1-4a0d-adba-a2acb3467acf","order_by":2,"name":"Mingkai Gou","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"State Key Lab of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Lab of Display Material and Technology, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mingkai","middleName":"","lastName":"Gou","suffix":""},{"id":599995743,"identity":"85fc5240-ecdf-443b-92ab-a9b4dea856a8","order_by":3,"name":"Yingzhou Hu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"State Key Lab of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Lab of Display Material and Technology, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yingzhou","middleName":"","lastName":"Hu","suffix":""},{"id":599995744,"identity":"8b2939f3-e588-454e-8b2d-0798ae897941","order_by":4,"name":"Jie Tang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jie","middleName":"","lastName":"Tang","suffix":""},{"id":599995745,"identity":"5f5caef3-d32b-4a11-898a-feee75ce87e1","order_by":5,"name":"Yan Shen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"State Key Lab of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Lab of Display Material and Technology, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yan","middleName":"","lastName":"Shen","suffix":""},{"id":599995746,"identity":"a9adab50-b67a-4ce7-8bd9-332dc0c4571c","order_by":6,"name":"Yu Zhang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"State Key Lab of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Lab of Display Material and Technology, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yu","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":599995747,"identity":"4ac06925-bce9-40fa-a13c-70af7adaaa1d","order_by":7,"name":"Lu-chang Qin","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lu-chang","middleName":"","lastName":"Qin","suffix":""},{"id":599995748,"identity":"a6984abe-9373-4187-9a89-f8c4cd33aac6","order_by":8,"name":"Ningsheng Xu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Material and Technology, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ningsheng","middleName":"","lastName":"Xu","suffix":""},{"id":599995749,"identity":"1eb09bd2-ee8b-41ee-b394-75fe61419f10","order_by":9,"name":"Richard Forbes","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, United Kingdom","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Richard","middleName":"","lastName":"Forbes","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-02-15 02:15:08","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8883179/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8883179/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":104401439,"identity":"efee953b-cabd-4634-9eb0-3b55c198d544","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-11 12:12:42","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":879342,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ManuscriptMethodsforcharacterizationofatomicscalefieldemissionpointelectronsource.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8883179/v1_covered_6e1a2eb8-efbe-4055-8123-ff8b98b5a313.pdf"},{"id":103893946,"identity":"57df285a-f177-4856-b2ef-2ba5675a42ab","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-04 08:37:26","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":1503015,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary Materials","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryMaterialsMethodsforcharacterizationofatomicscalefieldemissionpointelectronsource.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8883179/v1/bcdceb4febc9c62e49c85d91.docx"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Methods for characterization of atomic-scale field emission point-electron-source","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Field emission, Fowler-Nordheim FE theory, Murphy-Good FE theory, field ion microscopy, field electron microscopy, emission area, atomic-scale","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8883179/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8883179/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eField emission (FE) electron sources are made close to atomic-scale to reach the highest spatial resolution as well as stable emission for electron microscopy, electron beam inspection and lithography. At present, no single agreed method exists of using FE current-voltage data to extract the apparent emission area, which is needed for predicting some beam properties. The 1956 theory of Murphy and Good (MG) is better physics than the 1920s theory of Fowler and Nordheim (FN) and colleagues, but many researchers use simplified FN theory to analyse experimental data. The present paper reports an experimental method of finding apparent emission area, based on using field ion and field electron microscopes (FIM-FEM). The discrepancy of emission area between the FIM-FEM method and MG-based analysis is a factor of 7.4, while that with simplified FN-based analysis is about 25, confirming MG theory is better for FE data analysis. The result allows deduction of key indicators, including source energy spread, reduced brightness and emission efficiency. A downloadable program is made available to help analysis. Our work provide a new experimental method of characterizing FE electron sources, especially the atomic-scale cold cathode, for which existing plot-based data-analysis methods are not suitable.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Methods for characterization of atomic-scale field emission point-electron-source","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-03-04 08:37:07","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8883179/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"2d8aee1e-acae-45b0-91c2-c60cd8342c5e","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 4th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":63847003,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics/Techniques and instrumentation/Characterization and analytical techniques"},{"id":63847004,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics/Condensed-matter physics/Electronic properties and materials"},{"id":63847005,"name":"Physical sciences/Nanoscience and technology/Techniques and instrumentation/Characterization and analytical techniques"},{"id":63847006,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics/Quantum physics/Quantum mechanics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-04T08:37:08+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-03-04 08:37:07","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8883179","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8883179","identity":"rs-8883179","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}