Studies of enhanced field emission relevant to high field superconducting radio frequency devices

Surface roughness represents the measure of the irregularities on the surface contributing to the local field enhancement. The traditional Fowler-Nordheim equation established for perfectly planar surfaces is not suitable for describing emission from rough surfaces. Instead, it is more appropriate to use the equation that accounts for the field enhancement factor describing the effect of the surface morphology. In superconducting radio frequency cavities field emission may occur in the irises and the tips on the cavity surface may act as an emitter leading to the high electric field. For this study, calculations for hemispherical, cylindrical, and conical tips have been performed by using a multiphysics software package COMSOL. The focus was put on the dependence of the field enhancement factor on the shape and the radius of the protrusions. The electric field strength and the current density increase with increasing the root mean square average of the profile heights due to field enhancement at the cavity irises. The lowest value of the electric field has been achieved for the hemisphere. The calculated values for the field enhancement factors are consistent with the data from the literature, in which case the protrusion may represent a small local bump on the surface of a superconducting cavity. Based on the fit of the results, presented here, the relation between the enhancement factor and the radius has been suggested. The accurate estimation of the field emission may play a crucial role in the design of accelerators and other technological applications with requirements of very high precision.

Dynamically controlling local field enhancement at an epsilon-near-zero/dielectric interface via nonlinearities of an epsilon-near-zero medium

For p-polarized light incident on an interface between an ordinary dielectric and an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) material, an enhancement of the component of the electric field, normal to this interface, has been shown to occur. This local field enhancement holds great promise for amplifying nonlinear optical processes and for other applications requiring ultrastrong local fields in epsilon-near-zero based technologies. However, the loss associated with the imaginary part of the dielectric constant of an epsilon-near-zero material can greatly suppress the field enhancement factor. In this study, we analyze, using density matrix formalism, the field enhancement factor for a saturable two-level system that exhibits second- and third-order nonlinearities. We show that, in such a system, an almost lossless ENZ response can arise as a consequence of saturable nonlinearity and that the local field enhancement factor can be readily controlled dynamically by adjusting the intensity of the incident electromagnetic wave. Our findings provide for the first time a pathway to design a material exhibiting an external field responsive epsilon-near-zero behavior for applications in nonlinear photonics.

Enhancement of Electron Emission Properties of Carbon Nanotubes by the Decoration with Low Work Function Metal Oxide Nanoparticles

In the present report, the properties of the field emission devices of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were remarkably improved by decorating their surface with magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgO NPs). The MgO NPs were attached effectively on the surface of CNTs via thermal evaporation. The Raman spectra confirm the graphitic order of as-grown pristine CNTs with RBM (radial breathing mode), D band and G band peaks at the 282 cm−1, 1347 cm−1 and 1594 cm−1 respectively. The peak at 471 cm−1 indicates successful attachment of MgO NPs to the CNTs. The enhanced field emission properties of CNTs were mainly attributed to the MgO NPs which increased the field enhancement factor and the density of emission sites. The decreased work function and increased field enhancement factor were responsible for the improved FE properties of the CNTs. Our results indicate that the MgO decorated CNTs can be used as an effective field emitter for various electron emission devices. The turn-on field decrease from 1.6 V/μm to 1.3 V/μm and the maximum current density increases from 1.581 to 3.678 mA/cm2 after the decoration of CNTs with MgO NPs. The value of field enhancement factor (β) also increases from 2.814×103 to 9.823×103.