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http://dx.doi.org/10.9729/AM.2016.46.1.20
Review Article
*Correspondence to:
Wang J,
Tel: +86-10-67392668
Fax: +86-10-67391101
E-mail: wangjsh@bjut.edu.cn
Received December 10, 2015
Revised February 17, 2016
Accepted February 18, 2016
Our work on Sc2O3-W matrix dispenser cathodes had been reviewed in this paper. The
cathode with uniform distribution of Sc2O3 had been obtained using liquid-liquid doping
method. The cathode had excellent emission property, i.e., the emission current density
in pulse condition could reach over 35 A/cm2. It was found that the cathode surface was
covered by a Ba-Sc-O active substance multilayer with a thickness of about 100 nm, which
was different from the monolayer and semiconducting layer in thickness. Furthermore,
the observation results displayed that nanoparticles appeared at the growth steps and the
surface of tungsten grains of the fully activated cathode. The calculation result indicated
that the nanoparticles could cause the increase of local electric field strengths. We proposed
the emission model that both the Ba-Sc-O multilayer and the nanoparticles distributing
mainly on the growth steps of the W grains contributed to the emission. The future work
on this cathode has been discussed.
Key Words: Sc2O3, W, Dispenser cathodes
INTRODUCTION
Thermionic cathodes are used as electron sources in
microwave and power tubes, cathode ray tubes, plasma
devices, and electron beam instruments. M type cathodes,
which are made by coating Ba-W dispenser with precious
metal such as Ir, Os or Re or mixed metals, are the widely
used cathodes at present. M type cathodes have been proved
to operate stably for more than 20,000 hours with current
densities of 10 to 20 A/cm2 (Green, 2008). However, with
the rapid development of vacuum electron devices, the
electron emission current density of the traditional cathodes
is unable to fulfill the requirement, e.g., terahertz vacuum
electron devices such as backward wave oscillators, SmithPurcell radiation sources, and other devices place demands on
cathode current density capability of 50 to 100 A/cm2, which
is several times in the capability of the traditional cathodes.
In order to meet the requirement of the development of the
vacuum electron devices, an increase of electron emission
current density at a given operating temperature is one of the
main goals of thermionic cathode improvement for different
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (51471006, 51534009, 51225402).
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits
unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyrights 2016 by Korean Society of Microscopy
CC
20
5 mm
5 mm
1 mm
1 mm
Fig. 1. Scanning electron microscope images of Sc2O3-W matrices prepared with Scandia doped tungsten powder obtained by mechanical mixing (A),
liquid-solid doping (B), and Sol-Gel method and EDS result (C), Re-Sc2O3-W cathode prepared by liquid-solid doping and EDS result (D).
21
Wang J et al.
3
LgI LgG LgU
2
(1)
Mechanical mixing
Sc1
1.35
16.6
Solid-liquid doping
Sc2
1.36
16.8
Liquid-liquid doping
Sc3
1.43
45.8
Adding Re
Sc4
1.44
36.1
22
2.5
Sc/W
Ba/W
APPH ratio
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
0
Location
Diffusion species
D0 (cm2/S)
(eV)
-Sc, Self-diffusion
0.948
3.10
9.4110-13
-Sc, Self-diffusion
0.858
2.62
W-Os
0.64
5.58
1.5410-22
W-Ir
0.32
5.24
1.5210-21
0.85
1.0610-18
W-Sc2O3
-15
2.110
Cited from the article of Uda et al. (1999) (Ite Technical Report 23, 59-64).
*Deff at 1,300 k for -Sc, -Sc, W-Os, and W-Ir are calculated using D0 and
. -Sc transforms under 1,610 K into -Sc. Thus, Deff at 1,300 K of -Sc is
not presented.
23
Wang J et al.
100
Ba
Sc
O
W
Activated 2 hr
80
60
40
20
100
90
80
70
Os
60
50
40
30
20
Ba
10
0
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
20
40
60
80
100
120
Depth (nm)
Fig. 3. Depth profiles of elements on surface of the scandate cathode (A) and Os coated M-type cathode (B) by PHI 700 Auger spectroscopy.
Fig. 4. Scanning electron microscope images of fracture of the fully activated Sc2O3-W matrix dispenser cathode (A) and traditional Ba-W cathode (B).
24
C
2.5E+007
Ex=0
Ex=100
2E+007
1.5E+007
1E+007
5E+006
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
SUMMARY
Sc2O3-W matrix dispenser cathode was prepared by powder
metallurgy method. It was found that the cathodes with
submicron microstructure and uniform distribution of Sc2O3
nanoparticles had good performance such as high emission
property and emission uniformity. After fully activated, the
cathode surface was covered by a multilayer composed of
Ba, Sc and O and the nanoparticles in the size of around 10
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was
reported.
REFERENCES
Gaertner G, Geittner P, and Raasch D (2002) Low temperature and cold
emission of scandate cathodes. Appl. Surf. Sci. 201, 61-68.
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Wang J et al.
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