Ion and electron energies in gated field emitter failures

In previous work (1992), the authors studied the characteristics of gated field emitter failures and developed a theory to explain failure initiation. During a failure, the voltage between the emitter tip and gate (spaced 1 μm apart) was found to drop from -140 V to ≈-10 V. The current density was found to be ~10¹² A/m² during the failure, and plumes of ions and electrons were injected into vacuum. The ratio of ion current to electron current was found to be 10%. Those results indicated that the failures were similar to cathodic vacuum arcs. In the present study the energies of the ions and electrons are measured using a retarding potential energy analyzer. The results show that there are ions with energies as high as 80 eV and electrons with energies of 6 eV. The high-energy ions confirm that emitter failures are cathodic vacuum arcs