# Coulomb blockade of field emission from nanoscale conductors

## TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical model explaining how Coulomb blockade causes step-like increases in electron field emission current from nanoscale conductors, with detailed analysis for nanoclusters and nanowires.

## Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework for Coulomb blockade effects in field emission from nanoscale objects, highlighting step-like current behavior due to single-electron charging.

## Key findings

- Field emission current exhibits step-like increases due to Coulomb blockade.
- Charging effects cause abrupt changes in the effective electric field.
- Detailed current-voltage characteristics are provided for nanoclusters and nanowires.

## Abstract

Theoretical description of the field emission of electrons from nanoscale objects weakly coupled to the cathode is presented. It is shown that the field- emission current increases in a step-like fashion due to single-electron charging which leads to abrupt changes of the effective electric field responsible for the field emission. A detailed consideration of the current-voltage characteristics is carried out for a nanocluster modelled by a metallic spherical particle in the close vicinity of the cathode and for a cylindrical silicon nanowire grown on the cathode surface.

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/0704.0415