Improved Field Emission Algorithms for Modeling Field Emission Devices Using a Conformal Finite-Difference Time-Domain Particle-in-Cell Method*

This work introduces a conformal finite difference time domain (CFDTD) particle-in-cell (PIC) method with an improved field emission algorithm to accurately and efficiently study field emission devices. The CFDTD method is based on the Dey-Mittra algorithm or cut-cell algorithm, as implemented in the Vorpal code. For the field emission algorithm, we employ the elliptic function v(y) found by Forbes and a new fitting function t(y)2 for the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) equation. With these improved correction factors, field emission of electrons from a cathode surface is much closer to the prediction of the exact FN formula derived by Murphy and Good.