Progress in reconstructing field emission theory to make it more transparent

This conference presentation is part of continuing work to clarify the theory of cold field electron emission (CFE). It addresses the issue that some general physics textbooks and many published experimental papers use one or more CFE equations that are known to CFE theoreticians to be defective. These defective equations have been in wide use for 15 years or more: they impede the interpretation of measured current-voltage data and, for large-area field emitters (LAFEs), they have contributed to the publication of many spurious results. Along with more general proposals, this presentation makes specific proposals for overcoming these difficulties. For LAFEs, the aim is to extract characterization data concerning emitter sharpness that is more reliable, and (where possible) data about how much area of the LAFE is actually emitting significantly.