2005/05/10 by Thomas L. Schmidt, T. L. Schmidt, A. Komnik
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Carbon Nanotubes in Composites #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.ssc.2005.05.014
published as Solid State Communications 135 (2005) 455-460 · 7 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Solid State Communications
arxiv created 2005/05/10 · openalex publication_date 2005/05/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
One of the most convenient methods to obtain information about the energy distribution function of electrons in conducting materials is the measurement of the energy resolved current j(ω) in field emission (FE) experiments. Its high energy tail j_>(ω) (above the Fermi edge) contains invaluable information about the nature of the electron--electron interactions inside the emitter. Thus far, j_>(ω) has been calculated to second order in the tunnelling probability, and it turns out to be divergent toward the Fermi edge for a wide variety of emitters. The extraction of the correlation properties from real experiments can potentially be obscured by the eventually more divergent contributions of higher orders as well as by thermal smearing around EF. We present an analysis of both factors and make predictions for the energy window where only the second order tunnelling events dominate the behaviour of j_>(ω). We apply our results to the FE from Luttinger liquids and single-wall carbon nanotubes.