No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Large-signal and small-signal electronic equivalent circuits are developed to describe signal generation by a field electron emitter, with and without a ballast resistor. It is shown that different small-signal equivalent circuits are needed for the cases where a small alternating voltage variation is applied and where the tunneling process is directly modulated, e.g. by directing a laser at the field emitter. The role of circuit resistances and of the parasitic capacitance between the emitter and its surroundings is crucially different in the two cases, with low-pass filter behaviour exhibited in the first case and high-pass filter behaviour in the second. Some consequences for the technical use of a field electron emitter as a non-linear device are discussed, particularly in applications that involve laser-assisted field electron emission and in the context of testing field emission tubes.

No abstract