E T Enikov and T Makansi 2008 Nanotechnology 19 075703 doi:10.1088/0957-4484/19/7/075703
E T Enikov1 and T Makansi2
Show affiliationsCombined thermionic emission and tunneling of hot electrons (thermo-tunneling) has emerged as a potential new solid-state cooling technology. Practical implementation of thermo-tunneling, however, requires the formation of a nanometer-sized gap spanning macroscopically significant surfaces. This paper describes a numerical and experimental investigation into the formation of a nanometer-sized tunneling gap based on the combined action of electrostatic, elastic and Lorentz forces. Experimental data reported here were used to tune the model and extract estimates for the size of the tunneling area and the gap size, respectively. The effect of changing the strength of the magnetic field was also investigated. The presented one-dimensional (1D) analysis of the relative magnitudes of these forces indicates possible stable operation.
Condensed matter: electrical, magnetic and optical
Issue 7 (20 February 2008)
Received 19 July 2007, in final form 25 September 2007
Published 31 January 2008
E T Enikov and T Makansi 2008 Nanotechnology 19 075703
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