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Specimen thermionic emitters were electropolished and electroetched to study the effect of surface preparations on improving thermionic emission. The best technique found was to electropolish the annealed rhenium surface and then electroetch it. The effect of electroetching was to remove other crystal planes faster than basal planes.
Thermionic emission microscope was designed to operate with metal specimen cathode temperatures of 2000 degrees C.
Thermionic emission from planar monocrystalline tungsten
Thermionic emission from silicate and aluminosilicate ion exchangers
From I-V measurements on Single Barrier Varactors (SBV) at different temperatures we concluded that thermionic emission across the barrier of the actual device is mainly due to transport through the X band. The same structure was also modeled with a one-dimensional drift-diffusion model, including a 'boundary condition' for thermionic emission across the heterojunction interface. By including thermionic field emission through the top of the triangular barrier of a biased diode and the effect of a non-abrupt interface at the heterojunction, we obtained good agreement between the modeled and measured I-V characteristics.
Thermionic emission measurement for palladium filament exposed to molecular and atomic hydrogen beam - hydrogen chemisorption on palladium
Change in thermionic emission current of palladium wire at 1000 degrees C due to exposure to molecular and atomic-hydrogen beams
Effects of various gases on thermionic emission of tantalum wire filaments
Thermionic electron emission currents from cesium coated tungsten accelerator electrodes in ion thrusters
Oxygen adsorption and desorption on single crystal W filament from thermionic emission microscope measurements, discussing gas pressure and filament temperature effects
Adsorption and desorption of oxygen on polycrystalline W, Mo, Ta and Re filaments, using thermionic emission measurements
Uranium and zirconium carbides as thermionic cathode materials or nuclear fuel for refractory metal thermionic emitters
Thermionic properties of tungsten surfaces partially covered with adsorbed cesium atoms
Researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center, in collaboration with the Rochester Institute of Technology, have investigated the thermionic properties of high-purity, single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) for use as electron-emitting electrodes. Carbon nanotubes are a recently discovered material made from carbon atoms bonded into nanometer-scale hollow tubes. Such nanotubes have remarkable properties. An extremely high aspect ratio, as well as unique mechanical and electronic properties, make single-wall nanotubes ideal for use in a vast array of applications. Carbon nanotubes typically have diameters on the order of 1 to 2 nm. As a result, the ends have a small radius of curvature. It is these characteristics, therefore, that indicate they might be excellent potential candidates for both thermionic and field emission.
The emission properties of lanthanum hexaboride in an atmosphere of nitrogen were investigated. The emitter was not poisoned by adsorbed nitrogen. This result should have application to magnetohydrodynamic devices in which electron flow from channel walls is required.
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Devices called solid-state ferroelectric- based sources (SSFBSs) are under development as sources of electrons, ions, ultraviolet light, and x-rays for diverse applications in characterization and processing of materials. Whereas heretofore it has been necessary to use a different device to generate each of the aforementioned species of charged particles or radiation, a single SSFBS can be configured and operated to selectively generate any of the species as needed using a single source. Relative to comparable prior sources based, variously, on field emission, thermionic emission, and gaseous discharge plasmas, SSFBSs demand less power, and are compact and lightweight. An SSFBS exploits the unique physical characteristics of a ferroelectric material in the presence of a high-frequency pulsed electric field. The basic building block of an SSFBS is a ferroelectric cathode -- a ferroelectric wafer with a solid electrode covering its rear face and a grid electrode on its front face (see figure). The application of a voltage pulse -- typically having amplitude of several kilovolts and duration of several nanoseconds -- causes dense surface plasma to form near the grid wires on the front surface.
The temperature dependence of the gate current versus the gate voltage in complementary heterojunction field-effect transistors (CHFET's) is examined. An analysis indicates that the gate conduction is due to a combination of thermionic emission, thermionic-field emission, and conduction through a temperature-activated resistance. The thermionic-field emission is consistent with tunneling through the AlGaAs insulator. The activation energy of the resistance is consistent with the ionization energy associated with the DX center in the AlGaAs. Methods reducing the gate current are discussed.