5. Conclusions

The thermionic emission in 2D and the characteristic curve of the diode are usually studied using statistical physics and advanced electromagnetic partial differential equations, we have studied these subjects with a simulation that use a model in terms of some few well known basic laws. We use an ideal gas to study the Richardson law, the dependence of current density with work function looks nice, considering Boltzmann distribution instead of the Fermi one drives to a dependence of current density with the square of temperature instead of power two. A model of charged particles interacting between them and with an external electric field drives to an acceptable dependence of the current with the voltage, some improvement must be done to model the electrodes.
Active learning is a must in the teaching process, these simulations are very useful to push students to put their "hands" on these subjects. The teacher could guide the student in his research reproducing the steps described in the previous paragraphs.
Applets of the simulations can be downloaded from:

Once you have the applet you can get its source code using Ejs (Ejs 2009).