Cold field emission from a low-dimensional paraboloidal tip

The competing effects of a reduced electron supply due to quantum confinement and increased transmission probability due to electrostatic field enhancement in nanoscale emitters are studied in the context of cold field emission from a nanoscale paraboloidal emitter tip. Results show that despite increasing local electric fields at the tip apex as the emitter radius decreases, the emitted current density (ECD) decreases.