INVESTIGATION OF INFLUENCE OF SURFACE NANOPARTICLE ON EMISSION PROPERTIES OF SCANDIA-DOPED DISPENSER CATHODES

Abstract

The microstructure of a fully activated scandia doped dispenser (SDD) cathode has been studied by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The observation results display that nanoparticles appear at the growth steps and the surface of tungsten grains of the fully activated SDD cathode. To study the influence of the nanoparticles on the emission, the local electric field strengths around the nanoparticles have been calculated by Maxwell 2D code and Comsol. The calculation results show that the local electric field strengths are enhanced by 1.1 to 3.8 times to average value based on different model conditions. The highest field strength is about 1.54 × 105 V/cm at an average field strength of 40 KV/cm, which is related to a space-charge limited (SCL) current density of 100 A/cm2 in the experimental configuration. This implies the field strength is not high enough to cause field emission.