Effect of silver doping on the current–voltage characteristic of PbS nanorods

•We have synthesized PbS and PbS:Ag nanorods by wet chemical method.•We investigate field emission property from a low bandgap single PbS nanorod.•We investigate field emission form nanorods is significantly increasing by doping.

We report on field emission property from a single nanorod measured by using scanning tunnelling spectroscopy. It has been shown that field emission from nanorods of small band gap semiconductor is significantly increasing by doping. The current transport mechanism is explained using double barrier tunnel junction formalism. It is observed experimentally that the Fowler–Nordheim tunnelling mechanism is dominant and governs the transport mechanism. The transport properties of PbS nanostructures in the form of nanorod are investigated in terms of various conduction mechanism. The minimum voltage necessary for triggering Fowler–Nordheim tunnelling under the revised biased for intrinsic sample ~0.95 V and decreases to ~0.67 V for increase doping concentration up to 1.76 wt%.