Energy distributions of field emitted electrons from carbon nanosheets: manifestation of the quantum size effect

We emphasize the importance of experiments with voltage dependent field emission energy distribution analysis in carbon nanosheets. Our analysis shows the crucial influence of the band structure on the energy distribution of field emitted electrons in few-layer graphene. In addition to the main peak we found characteristic sub-peaks in the energy distribution. Their positions strongly depend on the number of layers and the inter-layer interaction. The discovery of these peaks in field emission experiments from carbon nanosheets would be a clear manifestation of the quantum size effect in these new materials.Comment: accepted for publication in JETP Letter