Simulations of Thermionic Emission from Lab6-Vb2 Emitter

Abstract

Emitters made from lanthanum hexaboride-Vanadium Diboride (LaB 6 -VB 2 ) have been shown to be a promising thermionic emitter [1] . For applications it is important to understand their behavior, beam properties and work function distribution. In this work we model the work function of an emitter surface made from LaB 6 matrix with VB 2 rods based on experimental data [2] . The surface of the emitter has areas of high and low work functions which can affect beam properties [3] . In this work we examine the beam behavior by calculating the r.m.s. emittance, current, and the brightness of the electron beam. We use our own molecular dynamics code [4] , [5] which tracks the position and velocity of each electron in the system. The Coulomb interaction between all particles is fully included in our simulations.