Emission and surface characteristic of ternary alloy Ir/Re/W-coated impregnated tungsten cathodes

In order to improve the activation characteristics and emission ability of the conventional Ir-coated impregnated tungsten cathodes, a new type of dispenser cathode with ternary alloy Ir/Re/W coating was developed. The improved cathodes show higher emission current density and faster activation characteristics than that of the conventional pure Ir-coated impregnated tungsten cathodes. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to analyze the element compositions on the surface of the cathodes coated with pure Ir and Ir/Re/W alloy. The results show that for pure Ir coating cathode, binary alloy (Ir/W) is formed. The surface atom concentration is near 50/50 after full activation. For ternary alloy coating cathode, the surface atom concentration has changed from 35%Ir–25%Re–40%W to 33%Ir–19%Re–48%W before and after activation.