Demonstration of Low Work Function Perovskite SrVO3 Using Thermionic Electron Emission
Abstract
Engineering a material's work function is of central importance for many technologies and in particular electron emitters used in high‐power vacuum electronics and thermionic energy converters. A low work function surface is typically achieved through unstable surface functional species, especially in high power thermionic electron emitter applications. Discovering and engineering new materials with intrinsic, stable low work functions obtainable without volatile surface species would mark a definitive advancement in the design of electron emitters. This work reports evidence for the existence of a low work function surface on a bulk, monolithic, electrically conductive perovskite oxide: SrVO3. After considering the patch field effect on the heterogeneous emitting surface of the bulk polycrystalline samples, this study suggests the presence of low work function (≈2 eV) emissive grains on SrVO3 surface. Emission current densities of 10–100 mA cm–2 at ≈1000 °C, comparable to commercial LaB6 thermionic cathodes, indicative of an overall effective thermionic work function of 2.3–2.7 eV are obtained. This study demonstrates that perovskites like SrVO3 may have intrinsically low work functions comparable to commercialized W‐based dispenser cathodes and suggests that, with further engineering, perovskites may represent a new class of low work function electron emitters.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Aug 05, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1002/adfm.202203703
Entities
People
- Dane Morgan
- Dongzheng Chen
- John H. Booske
- Jose A. Alonso
- Lin Lin
- Otto Lu‐steffes
- Ryan Jacobs
- Vasilios Vlahos
Organizations
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- L3 Technologies
- National Science Foundation
- University of Wisconsin–Madison