A New Correction to Schottky Barrier Lowering in Cathodes.
Abstract
Understanding cathode behavior is one of the most crucial areas confronting manufacturers of travelling wave tube (TWT)amplifiers. The need for long lifetime, high emission current, and high reliability for potential space applications means that more stringent testing and evaluation procedures are needed to help select suitable devices. Here we address one such crucial area, that of the expected cathode emission current. The net emission current under given specific conditions is the single most used criterion for evaluating cathode performance. Until recently, full understanding of the cathode I-V and I-T characteristics for even a uniform work function surface was not yet developed. Expressions were known in the limit of low applied voltage or high temperature, and in the limit of high applied voltage or low operating temperature. A full solution to the uniform work planar diode requires both the effects of space-charge and Schottky barrier-lowering to be included, if one is to cover the entire spectrum from space-charge limited (SCL) to temperature-limited (TL) emission.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 15, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA159500
Entities
People
- G. Eng
Organizations
- The Aerospace Corporation