A super-emissive self-heated cathode for high-power applications

Author

Hartmann, W. ; Kirkman, G. ; Dominic, V. ; Gundersen, M.A.

Author_Institution

Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Volume

36

Issue

4

fYear

1989

fDate

4/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

825

Lastpage

826

Abstract

A superemissive cathode for high-power glow-discharge applications, such as high-current thyratrons, based on a self-heated thermionic emission mechanism is reported, and the mechanism is discussed. The results suggest that high-brightness cathode design for glow-discharge switches can be significantly improved. By tailoring the area of ion-beam heating, it should be possible to optimize operating conditions according to pulse length, current risetime, voltage falltime, peak current and electrode material. The superemission characteristics which are ≈2 orders of magnitude larger than typical thermionic emitters, suggest that there are a number of important applications

Keywords

glow discharges; thermionic cathodes; thermionic emission; thyratrons; current risetime; electrode material; gas discharge tubes; glow-discharge switches; high-current thyratrons; high-power applications; ion beam area; operating conditions optimisation; peak current; pulse length; self-heated cathode; self-heated thermionic emission mechanism; superemission characteristics; superemissive cathode; voltage falltime; Cathodes; Electrodes; Glow discharges; Plasma applications; Plasma density; Plasma devices; Plasma measurements; Spark gaps; Thermionic emission; Thyratrons;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.22493

Filename

22493