Journal
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
Volume 94, Issue 18, Pages -Publisher
AMER INST PHYSICS
DOI: 10.1063/1.3129193
Keywords
ab initio calculations; barium compounds; density functional theory; surface states; surface structure; thermionic cathodes; thermionic electron emission; work function
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Funding
- USDoD MURI04 AFOSR
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Scandate cathodes (BaxScyOz on W) are important thermionic electron emission materials whose emission mechanism remains unclear. Ab initio modeling is used to investigate the surface properties of both scandate and traditional B-type (Ba-O on W) cathodes. We demonstrate that the Ba-O dipole surface structure believed to be present in active B-type cathodes is not thermodynamically stable, suggesting that a nonequilibrium steady state dominates the active cathode's surface structure. We identify a stable, low work function BaxScyOz surface structure, which may be responsible for some scandate cathode properties and demonstrate that multicomponent surface coatings can lower cathode work functions.
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