Exploring the Field Emission Capabilities of ALGAN/GAN Nanoscale Vacuum Diodes

We successfully demonstrate for the first-time field emission (FE) from and to the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) formed in AlGaN/GaN heterojunction based lateral nanoscale vacuum emission diodes. In addition, we demonstrate FE with an AlGaN/GaN cathode and metallic anode. Our FE measurements demonstrate that these vacuum diodes with AlGaN/GaN and metallic anodes can deliver emission current in the range of microamps to milliamps, respectively, when biased within a range from 5 to 30 V.