Field emission energy distribution and three-terminal current-voltage characteristics from planar graphene edges

Abstract

We demonstrate field emission from an integrated three-terminal device using a suspended planar graphene edge as the source of vacuum electrons. Energy spectra of the emitted electrons confirm the field-emission mechanism. The energy spectra produced by graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition and reduced graphene oxide are compared. The drain source voltage required to produce a given drain current increases when negative voltages are applied to the gate, confirming field-effect transistor operation. The emission current rises exponentially with inverse voltage over the measured current range from 1 pA to 10 nA. The current-voltage characteristics are consistent with tunneling through barrier potentials calculated numerically from the device geometry.