Vacuum Voltage Breakdown as a Thermal Instability of the Emitting Protrusion
- 1 October 1964
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Journal of Applied Physics
- Vol. 35 (10), 2855-2857
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1713118
Abstract
Breakdown by thermal instability of a field emitter is analyzed, taking into account the temperature dependence of field emission and of resistivity. Beyond a certain temperature the emission increases while the necessary field drops. It is shown that for a whisker‐like emitter this instability occurs when the emitting tip is only several hundred degrees centigrade hotter than the bulk of the cathode.Keywords
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