Use of a spreadsheet to test for lack of field emission orthodoxy

This conference poster provides support to presentations made at the International Vacuum Nanoelectronics Conferences in 2012 and 2013. So-called “orthodox” field electron emission (orthodox FE) is specified by a set of physical and mathematical assumptions convenient for the purposes of analyzing current-voltage or equivalent data plotted as a Fowler-Nordheim plot. The development of a numerical test for lack of field emission orthodoxy, and the results of its application, are described elsewhere. The test is based on extracting values of scaled barrier field (f-values) from FN plots, and comparing these with the range of values expected if emission is orthodox. If emission is not orthodox, then the values of certain emitter characterization parameters (such as field enhancement factors), commonly derived from FN plots by simple formulae, may be unreliable. The spreadsheet described here is available free from the author, and provides a quick and easy way of extracting f-values from FN plots. This should take about 10 minutes per plot. The poster describes the input data needed for the spreadsheet, and how the spreadsheet operates.