The laser assisted field electron emission from carbon nanostructure

Abstract

We present experimental and theoretical study of the femtosecond light-assisted field electron emission from nanocarbon films. We demonstrate that irradiation with intense femtosecond laser pulse allows one to achieve electron emission density of up to 13 nC/cm2 at a moderate applied static electric filed. The developed model well describes obtained experimental results and allows us to visualize physical mechanisms including heating of electron gas, multiphoton photoionization, and the space charge formation, which are responsible for the observed phenomena.