Ultrashort Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes Reveal Field-Emission Coulomb Blockade and Highest Electron-Source Brightness

Abstract

We present here well-defined Coulomb staircases using an original field-emission experiment on several individual in situ-grown single-wall carbon nanotubes. A unique in situ process was applied nine times to progressively shorten one single-wall carbon nanotube down to ≃10 nm, which increased the oscillations periods from 5.5 to 80 V, the temperature for observable Coulomb staircase to 1100 K and the currents to 1.8 μA. This process led to the brightest electron source ever reported [9×1011 A/(str m2 V)].