Perovskite oxides: New candidate materials for low work function electron emitters

Perovskite oxides are promising materials for a new class of electron emitting materials because they possess intrinsically low work functions without the need for an additional surface dipole coating. Density Functional Theory (DFT) was used to examine a series of LaBO3 (B=transition metal) perovskites, and it was found that LaVO3 exhibited the lowest work function of 1.52 eV.