| Summary: | The article presents information on single-crystalline nanowire field emitters. Rare-earth hexaborides are the best thermionic electron sources due to their low work function, low volatility at high temperature, high conductivity, high chemical resistance, and high mechanical strength. Single-crystallines ye shown this advantage in thermionic electron emission applications during the past 50 years. A field emission electron source offers a brightness more than 100 times higher than the conventional thermionic electron sources, and its current density J can be expressed by the Fowler-Nordheim equation .
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