Field emission from metal surfaces in the Thomas-Fermi-von-Weizsäcker model

We evaluate the electron emission current density from jellium metallic surfaces in the Thomas-Fermi-von-Weizsäcker approximation. We implement the weighted density approximation (WDA) for description of the exchange and correlation energy of interacting electrons. We find the emission mechanism exhibits crossover from quantum to classical over-barrier escape of electrons from the surface. Well below a surface-specific threshold field strength $E_d$, electron tunneling is mainly affected by the change of the metal workfunction, and is less sensitive to the detailed shape of the surface barrier. In particular, since the position of the image charge plane for electrons leaving the surface does not precisely coincide with the centroid of the induced screening charge at the surface in response to the applied electric field, we find an effective increase in the metal workfunction by $ΔW \sim 0.01$ eV, which decreases the dark current.

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