A super-emissive self-heated cathode for high-power applications

A superemissive cathode for high-power glow-discharge applications, such as high-current thyratrons, based on a self-heated thermionic emission mechanism is reported, and the mechanism is discussed. The results suggest that high-brightness cathode design for glow-discharge switches can be significantly improved. By tailoring the area of ion-beam heating, it should be possible to optimize operating conditions according to pulse length, current risetime, voltage falltime, peak current and electrode material. The superemission characteristics which are approximately=2 orders of magnitude larger than typical thermionic emitters, suggest that there are a number of important applications.<
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