Simulation study of carbon nanotube x-ray tube structure

Abstract

An X-ray source, which is based on the field emission electron source, is being currently developed by using carbon nano-tubes (CNTs) for the applications to biological, medical and material diagnostic technology fields. In the design of triode type X-ray sources, the fine beam focus is important to acquire high resolution X-ray image. Therefore, the geometrical parameters such as electrode shapes and distances between each part must be optimized. In this study, four different shapes of triode structures were simulated and the beam focusing performances were presented according to voltage conditions of each triode parts. Results show that the concave shape cathode structure shows the best spot size and structural simplicity among the tested in this study.