Quantum suppression of shot noise in field emitters

O. M. Bulashenko, J. M. Rubi

Published 2002-10-11, updated 2003-03-26Version 2

We have analyzed the shot noise of electron emission under strong applied electric fields within the Landauer-Buttiker scheme. In contrast to the previous studies of vacuum-tube emitters, we show that in new generation electron emitters, scaled down to the nanometer dimensions, shot noise much smaller than the Schottky noise is observable. Carbon nanotube field emitters are among possible candidates to observe the effect of shot-noise suppression caused by quantum partitioning.