Automation of the Experimental Setup for Studying the Field Electron Emission Properties of Materials

Field electron emission is a relevant problem in vacuum electronics. A complex of studies with large volume of measurements is required in order to obtain complete information about this phenomenon. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the experimental work through appropriate equipment. But modern high-tech equipment is very expensive; hence, there is a demand for the development of simple research methods on cheap and easily accessible devices. Automation of experimental data acquisition from the installation for studying the field electron emission properties of materials was carried out. Field emission is initiated by a high voltage source, which is controlled by a potential of 0 - 5 V. Devices with a digital-to-analog converters can easily solve the issue of high voltage regulation. But this work shows a method for current-voltage characteristics recording and experimental data processing by means of registration systems consisting of a computer, programmable laboratory power supply and L-Card input module not equipped with the digital-to-analog converter. Such devices are available, widely used and cheap enough to allow experiments to be carried out in most scientific institutions. Processing of the data array and calculation of experimental dependence points are realized due to analyzing the dynamics of the control signal.