The characteristics of field and photo-field-emission from high-resistance Si and Ge a t low temperature are presented. On the basis of a dielectric field cathode model, the nature of the dark current and the conditions of voltage redistribution across the emitter and vacuum gap are discussed. The photofield emission characteristics are also discussed. ripe ACT aBJIeHbI Xapa€irep?TCTClIiM ZiBTO3JIeHTpOHHOfi (I aBTO@OT03JIeKTpOH€IO~ 3MHCCHM M3 BbICOHOOMHLIX KpeMHMH M I.epMaHHK IIpH H H 3 H O 6 TeMIIepaTypC. I/ICXOaH 5IB MOHeJIHll :[Gi3JIeHTpHqecHOrO aBTOIiaTOl~a, 06cy>HAaeTcR IIpHpOAa TeMIIOBOrO TOKB, JJCJIOBHFI IIepepacIIpe~eJIeHHH HaIIpalK€!H?TK €123 3MHTTepe H BaHYYMHOM IlpOMe-WyTlie, a TaFiWe OcO6eHHOCTH XapaHT€!pMcT.GlK aBTO$OTO3JIe€iTpOHHOa 3McICCIiLI.

Continuing the discussion of experimental results of photosensitive field emission from p‐type semiconductor cathodes [6], a problem of electron emission in a one‐dimensional metal–insulator‐semiconductor structure is considered. Introducing the electron lifetime in the inversion layer with respect to emission (τe) and the accumulation time of the inversion layer (τIL), the emission light–current–voltage characteristics in the inversion layer approximation are obtained from which the condition of photosensitive emission (τe ≪ τIL) follows. The discussion of the second photosensitivity condition (absence of the avalanche generation) shows that for semiconductors with a large electron affinity and a small gap width photosensitive emission without avalanche breakdown is possible with surface states of the density > 1013 cm−2 involved which are in field exchange with the valence band.

Pulse photo‐field‐emission from 7000 Ω p‐type Si has been investigated. It is shown that the onset of the emission current is biased with respect to onset of the voltage pulse; the emission current passes through a maximum decreasing towards the end of the pulse. The delay time depends on the light intensity, cathode temperature, bias voltage, and pulse voltage. The presence of the delay time and the drop of the emission current pulse show that surface states are essential in the phenomenon of photo‐field‐emission for the real surface of Si. The density estimated from the field value near the surface (E ≧ 107 V/cm) exceeds 1013 cm−2. Experimental results show qualitative agreement with the model of the photo‐field‐emission given in [3].