Investigation of ionization gauges with carbon nanotube (CNT) field-emitter cathodes

The use of field emitter arrays (FEA) in XHV partial or total pressure measurement so far did not pass the laboratory stage. The reasons are costly manufacturing in comparison to thermionic cathodes and the susceptibility of microtip cathodes to degradation at higher pressures. Today, electron sourc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. Conference series 2008-03, Vol.100 (9), p.092007
Main Authors: Knapp, W, Schleussner, D, Wüest, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon nanotubes
Diameters
Electron sources
Emitters
Emitters (electron)
Field emission
Finite element method
Ionization gages
Physics
Pressure measurement
Thermionic cathodes
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The use of field emitter arrays (FEA) in XHV partial or total pressure measurement so far did not pass the laboratory stage. The reasons are costly manufacturing in comparison to thermionic cathodes and the susceptibility of microtip cathodes to degradation at higher pressures. Today, electron sources based on carbon nanotube (CNT) field emitters are a true alternative to FEAs with microtip cathodes. CNTs with a diameter below 20 nm possess the best field emission properties and are very robust mechanically, which justifies their use in field emission cathodes for vacuum sensors. Starting from basic research to characterize field emission properties, long term stability and stress of CNT field emitters, we present investigations of CNT field emitter electron sources of different provenance in an ionization gauge. We used emission currents of 1 mA and an upper pressure limit of 1 Pa. We compare the results with those of Dong and discuss advantages to a Bayard-Alpert gauge (BAG) with thermionic cathodes. Focus of the presentation is on the investigation of the CNT cathode for applications in ionization gauges.
ISSN:1742-6596
1742-6588
1742-6596
DOI:10.1088/1742-6596/100/9/092007