RICHARDSON CONSTANT AND TUNNELING EFFECTIVE MASS FOR THERMIONIC AND THERMIONIC-FIELD EMISSION IN SCHOTTKY BARRIER DIODES

An appreciable difference is shown to be expected to exist between the experimentally measured Richardson constant and the 'ideal' Richardson constant associated with the flux of a Maxwellian distribution of carriers in a semiconductor. The equality which must exist between the Richardson constant for the forward and reverse characteristics is discussed. The semiconductor charge carrier energy-wave vector relationship rather than that of the metal is shown to be dominant because it controls the cone of acceptance for carriers incident on the barrier from the metal side. The effective mass in the ideal Richardson constant for T-F emission is shown to be the same as that for thermionic emission. This mass, which is associated with the E-k relationship transverse to the direction of current flow, can be considerably different from the tunneling effective mass which is the effective mass component in the direction of the current flow. © 1969.