Electron Emission Devices for Energy-Efficient Systems

Artificial intelligence platforms, high-speed computation, and data handling systems increasingly need energy-efficient systems. Electron emission was fundamental to the development of transistors and electronics over seven decades ago. This technology has a renewed emergence and includes implications in diverse fields ranging from electronics, telecommunication, defense, space exploration, medical science, and material science to televisions and displays. For such a vital field, a critical review of theories, current research directions, applications, and future prospects is invaluable. Herein, the ongoing research directions adopted to enhance the emitter performance are reviewed and the relative degree of their success is compared. This is supported by an overview of key electron emission, transport mechanisms, and ways to tune a particular mechanism for energy-efficient applications. The diverse range of applications in this field, with a particular focus on electronics, is outlined. Exciting current developments in electron field emission that could revolutionize the electronic industry with a resurgence of nanoscale field emission transistor in the air medium are also discussed.