Enhancement of secondary emission property of molybdenum cathode co-doped with La_2O_3 and Y_2O_3

La2O3 and Y2O3 co-doped Mo secondary emitters were prepared by three kinds of doping method combined with high temperature plasma sintering.The secondary electron emission property and microstructure of the cathodes were studied.It showed that the cathode prepared by liquid-liquid doping method exhibited the best emission property among all the samples prepared by liquid-solid doping,solid-solid doping and liquid-liquid doping methods due to a uniform distribution of different substances.RE2O3 existed unifo...

A Study on La_2O_3-Y_2O_3-Mo Secondary Emission Material

The substrate molybdenum doped with La_2O_3, Y_2O_3 cathode material was made by the powder metallurgy method. The secondary emission coefficients of the materials were tested. The experimental results show that Mo cathodes doped with La_2O_3,Y_2O_3 have good secondary emission properties. When the cathodes are activated, the maximal secondary emission coefficients of these cathodes are higher than 2.0 and can meet the practical requirement. The distribution of the rare earth in the interior and at surface of this kind of cathode material before and after emission was studied using Scanning Electronic Microscopic (SEM) and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectrum(XPS). The analysis results show that the rare earth is easy to gather at grain boundaries and the relevant concentration of rare earth on the surface after emission is obviously greater than that before emission.

Nonlinear change of ion-induced secondary electron emission in theκ-Al_(2)O_(3) surface charging from first-principle modelling

Secondary electron emission(SEE)induced by the positive ion is an essential physical process to influence the dynamics of gas discharge which relies on the specific surface material.Surface charging has a significant impact on the material properties,thereby affecting the SEE in the plasma-surface interactions.However,it does not attract enough attention in the previous studies.In this paper,SEE dependent on the charged surface of specific materials is described with the computational method combining a density functional theory(DFT)model from the first-principle theory and the theory of Auger neutralization.The effect ofκ-Al2O3 surface charge,as an example,on the ion-induced secondary electron emission coefficient(SEEC)is investigated by analyzing the defect energy level and band structure on the charged surface.Simulation results indicate that,with the surface charge from negative to positive,the SEEC of a part of low ionization energy ions(such as Ei=12.6 eV)increases first and then decreases,exhibiting a nonlinear changing trend.This is quite different from the monotonic decreasing tendency observed in the previous model which simplifies the electronic structure.This irregular increase of the SEEC can be attributed to the lower escaped probability of orbital energy.The results further illustrate that the excessive charge could cause the bottom of the conduction band close to the valence band,thus leading to the decrease of the orbital energy occupied by the excited electrons.The nonlinear change of SEEC demonstrates a more realistic situation of how the electronic structure of material surface influences the SEE process.This work provides an accurate method of calculating SEEC from specific materials,which is urgent in widespread physical scenarios sensitive to surface materials,such as increasingly growing practical applications concerning plasma-surface interactions.

Secondary electron emission and photoemission from a negative electron affinity semiconductor with large mean escape depth of excited electrons

The formulae for parameters of a negative electron affinity semiconductor(NEAS)with large mean escape depth of secondary electrons A(NEASLD)are deduced.The methods for obtaining parameters such asλ,B,E_(pom)and the maximumδandδat 100.0 keV≥E_(po)≥1.0 keV of a NEASLD with the deduced formulae are presented(B is the probability that an internal secondary electron escapes into the vacuum upon reaching the emission surface of the emitter,δis the secondary electron yield,E_(po)is the incident energy of primary electrons and E_(pom)is the E_(po)corresponding to the maximumδ).The parameters obtained here are analyzed,and it can be concluded that several parameters of NEASLDs obtained by the methods presented here agree with those obtained by other authors.The relation between the secondary electron emission and photoemission from a NEAS with large mean escape depth of excited electrons is investigated,and it is concluded that the presented method of obtaining A is more accurate than that of obtaining the corresponding parameter for a NEAS with largeλ_(ph)(λ_(ph)being the mean escape depth of photoelectrons),and that the presented method of calculating B at E_(po)>10.0 keV is more widely applicable for obtaining the corresponding parameters for a NEAS with largeλ_(ph).

Feedback model of secondary electron emission in DC gas discharge plasmas

Feedback is said to exist in any amplifier when the fraction of output power in fed back as an input.Similarly,in gaseous discharge ions that incident on the cathode act as a natural feedback element to stabilize and self sustain the discharge.The present investigation is intended to emphasize the feedback nature of ions that emits secondary electrons（SEs）from the cathode surface in DC gas discharges.The average number of SEs emitted per incident ion and non ionic species（energetic neutrals,metastables and photons）which results from ion is defined as effective secondary electronemission coefficient（ESEEC,Eg）.In this study,we derive an analytic expression that corroborates the relation betweenEg and power influx by ion to the cathode based on the feedback theory of an amplifier.In addition,experimentally,we confirmed the typical positive feedback nature of SEEfrom the cathode in argon DC glow discharges.The experiment is done for three different cathode material of same dimension（tungsten（W）,copper（Cu）and brass）under identical discharge conditions（pressure：0.45 mbar,cathode bias：-600 V,discharge gab：15 cm and operating gas：argon）.Further,we found that theEg value of these cathode material controls the amount of feedback power given by ions.The difference in feedback leads different final output i.e the power carried by ion at cathode（Pi C￠∣）.The experimentally obtained value of Pi C￠∣is 4.28 W,6.87 W and9.26 W respectively for W,Cu and brass.In addition,the present investigation reveals that the amount of feedback power in a DC gas discharges not only affect the fraction of power fed back to the cathode but also the entire characteristics of the discharge.

Characteristics of wall sheath and secondary electron emission under different electron temperatures in a Hall thruster

In this paper, a two-dimensional physical model is established in a Hall thruster sheath region to investigate the influences of the electron temperature and the propellant on the sheath potential drop and the secondary electron emission in the Hall thruster, by the particle-in-cell （PIC） method. The numerical results show that when the electron temperature is relatively low, the change of sheath potential drop is relatively large, the surface potential maintains a stable value and the stability of the sheath is good. When the electron temperature is relatively high, the surface potential maintains a persistent oscillation, and the stability of the sheath reduces. As the electron temperature increases, the secondary electron emission coefficient on the wall increases. For three kinds of propellants （At, Kr, and Xe）, as the ion mass increases the sheath potentials and the secondary electron emission coefficients reduce in sequence.

On characteristics of sheath damping near a dielectric wall with secondary electron emission

A preliminary investigation is conducted to study the characteristics of sheath damping near a dielectric wall with secondary electron emission （SEE）. Making use of the linear analysis of the sheath stability, we have found two major contributions to the sheath damping, one similar to the Landau damping in uniform plasmas and another determined by local electric field and electron density of the steady-state sheath. It indicates that in a classical sheath regime the damping in the sheath region monotonically increases towards the wall and decreases with the enhancement of SEE effect. In order to verify the theoretical analysis, sheath oscillation processes induced by an initial disturbance are simulated with a time-dependent one-dimensional （1D） sheath model. Numerical results obtained are consistent with the theoretical analysis qualitatively.

A novel double dielectric barrier discharge reactor with high field emission and secondary electron emission for toluene abatement

Dielectric barrier discharge(DBD)has been extensively investigated in the fields of environment and energy,whereas its practical implementation is still limited due to its unsatisfactory energy efficiency.In order to improve the energy efficiency of DBD,a novel double dielectric barrier discharge(NDDBD)reactor with high field emission and secondary electron emission was developed and compared with traditional DDBD(TDDBD)configuration.Firstly,the discharge characteristics of the two DDBD reactors were analyzed.Compared to TDDBD,the NDDBD reactor exhibited much stronger discharge intensity,higher transferred charge,dissipated power and gas temperature due to the effective utilization of cathode field emission and secondary electron emission.Subsequently,toluene abatement performance of the two reactors was evaluated.The toluene decomposition efficiency and mineralization rate of NDDBD were much higher than that of TDDBD,which were 86.44%-100%versus 28.17%-80.48%and 17.16%-43.42%versus 7.17%-16.44%at 2.17-15.12 W and 1.24-4.90 W respectively.NDDBD also exhibited higher energy yield than TDDBD,whereas the overall energy constant k_(overall)of the two reactors were similar.Finally,plausible toluene decomposition pathway in TDDBD and NDDBD was suggested based on organic intermediates that generated from toluene degradation.The finding of this study is expected to provide reference for the design and optimization of DBD reactor for volatile organic compounds control and other applications.

Secondary electron emission yield from vertical graphene nanosheets by helicon plasma deposition

The secondary electron emission yields of materials depend on the geometries of their surface structures.In this paper,a method of depositing vertical graphene nanosheet(VGN)on the surface of the material is proposed,and the secondary electron emission(SEE)characteristics for the VGN structure are studied.The COMSOL simulation and the scanning electron microscope(SEM)image analysis are carried out to study the secondary electron yield(SEY).The effect of aspect ratio and packing density of VGN on SEY under normal incident condition are studied.The results show that the VGN structure has a good effect on suppressing SEE.

Secondary electron emission model for photo-emission from metals in the vacuum ultraviolet

This study investigates two secondary electron emission(SEE)models for photoelectric energy distribution curves f(E_(ph),hγ),B,E_(mean),absolute quantum efficiency(AQE),and the mean escape depth of photo-emitted electronsλof metals.The proposed models are developed from the density of states and the theories of photo-emission in the vacuum ultraviolet and SEE,where B is the mean probability that an internal photo-emitted electron escapes into vacuum upon reaching the emission surface of the metal,and E_(mean)is the mean energy of photo-emitted electrons measured from vacuum.The formulas for f(E_(ph),hγ),B,λ,E_(mean),and AQE that were obtained were shown to be correct for the cases of Au at hγ=8.1–11.6 eV,Ni at hγ=9.2–11.6 eV,and Cu at hγ=7.7–11.6 eV.The photoelectric cross sections(PCS)calculated here are analyzed,and it was confirmed that the calculated PCS of the electrons in the conduction band of Au at hγ=8.1–11.6eV,Ni at hγ=9.2–11.6 eV,and Cu at hγ=7.7–11.6 eV are correct.

The charging stability of different silica glasses studied by measuring the secondary electron emission yield

This paper reports that the charging properties of lead silica, Suprasil silica and Infrasil silica are investigated by measuring the secondary electron emission （SEE） yield. At a primary electron beam energy of 25 keV, the intrinsic SEE yields measured at very low injection dose are 0.54, 0.29 and 0.35, respectively for lead silica, Suprasil and Infrasil silica glass. During the first e-beam irradiation at a high injection current density, the SEE yields of lead silica and Suprasil increase continuously and slowly from their initial values to a steady state. At the steady state, the SEE yields of lead silica and Suprasil are 0.94 and 0.93, respectively. In Infrasil, several charging and discharging processes are observed during the experiment. This shows that Infrasil does not reach its steady state. Two hours later, all samples are irradiated again in the same place as the first irradiation at a low current density and low dose. The SEE yields of lead silica, Suprasil and Infrasil are 0.69, 0.76 and 0.55, respectively. Twenty hours later, the values are 0.62, 0.64 and 0.33, respectively, for lead silica, Suprasil and Infrasil. These results show that Infrasil has poor charging stability. Comparatively, the charging stability of lead silica is better, and Suprasil has the best characteristics.

Analysis of secondary electron emission using the fractal method

Based on the rough surface topography with fractal parameters and the Monte–Carlo simulation method for secondary electron emission properties, we analyze the secondary electron yield(SEY) of a metal with rough surface topography. The results show that when the characteristic length scale of the surface, G, is larger than 1 × 10^(-7), the surface roughness increases with the increasing fractal dimension D. When the surface roughness becomes larger, it is difficult for entered electrons to escape surface. As a result, more electrons are collected and then SEY decreases. When G is less than 1 × 10^(-7),the effect of the surface topography can be ignored, and the SEY almost has no change as the dimension D increases. Then,the multipactor thresholds of a C-band rectangular impedance transfer and an ultrahigh-frequency-band coaxial impedance transfer are predicted by the relationship between the SEY and the fractal parameters. It is verified that for practical microwave devices, the larger the parameter G is, the higher the multipactor threshold is. Also, the larger the value of D,the higher the multipactor threshold.

Effect of Secondary Electron Emission on the Sheath in SPT Chamber

A one-dimensional slab model of the plasma sheath in the stationary plasma thruster （SPT） chamber is developed in this study. It is considered that secondary electrons emitted from ceramic walls are partially trapped by the bulk plasma in the SPT chamber; some secondary electrons drift across the sheath where they are generated and the bulk and move towards the opposite sheath. Thus both the secondary electron emission （SEE） from one sheath and the partially trapped secondary electrons from the opposite sheath contribute to this sheath. The results indicate that both the SEE coefficient and trapping coefficient have a significant impact not only on the distributions of both electrons and ions of the SPT sheath but also on the energy flux loss to the SPT wall. When the trapping coefficient increases, the energy flux of electrons deposited to the walls will increase whereas that of ions will decrease. Besides, the critical electron temperature will decrease greatly with the increase of the trapping coefficient.

Characteristics of secondary electron emission from few layer graphene on silicon(111) surface

As a typical two-dimensional(2D) coating material, graphene has been utilized to effectively reduce secondary electron emission from the surface. Nevertheless, the microscopic mechanism and the dominant factor of secondary electron emission suppression remain controversial. Since traditional models rely on the data of experimental bulk properties which are scarcely appropriate to the 2D coating situation, this paper presents the first-principles-based numerical calculations of the electron interaction and emission process for monolayer and multilayer graphene on silicon(111) substrate. By using the anisotropic energy loss for the coating graphene, the electron transport process can be described more realistically. The real physical electron interactions, including the elastic scattering of electron-nucleus, inelastic scattering of the electron-extranuclear electron, and electron-phonon effect, are considered and calculated by using the Monte Carlo method. The energy level transition theory-based first-principles method and the full Penn algorithm are used to calculate the energy loss function during the inelastic scattering. Variations of the energy loss function and interface electron density differences for 1 to 4 layer graphene coating Go Si are calculated, and their inner electron distributions and secondary electron emissions are analyzed. Simulation results demonstrate that the dominant factor of the inhibiting of secondary electron yield(SEY) of Go Si is to induce the deeper electrons in the internal scattering process. In contrast, a low surface potential barrier due to the positive deviation of electron density difference at monolayer Go Si interface in turn weakens the suppression of secondary electron emission of the graphene layer. Only when the graphene layer number is 3, does the contribution of surface work function to the secondary electron emission suppression appear to be slightly positive.

Numerical study on discharge characteristics influenced by secondary electron emission in capacitive RF argon glow discharges by fluid modeling

A one-dimensional（1D） fluid model of capacitive RF argon glow discharges between two parallel-plate electrodes at low pressure is employed. The influence of the secondary electron emission on the plasma characteristics in the discharges is investigated numerically by the model. The results show that as the secondary electron emission coefficient increases,the cycle-averaged electric field has almost no change; the cycle-averaged electron temperature in the bulk plasma almost does not change, but it increases in the two sheath regions; the cycle-averaged ionization rate, electron density, electron current density, ion current density, and total current density all increase. Also, the cycle-averaged secondary electron fluxes on the surfaces of the electrodes increase as the secondary electron emission coefficient increases. The evolutions of the electron flux, the secondary electron flux and the ion flux on the powered electrode increase as the secondary electron emission coefficient increases. The cycle-averaged electron pressure heating, electron Ohmic heating, electron heating, and ion heating in the two sheath regions increase as the secondary electron emission coefficient increases. The cycle-averaged electron energy loss increases with increasing secondary electron emission coefficient.

Simulation of Secondary Electron and Backscattered Electron Emission in A6 Relativistic Magnetron Driven by Different Cathode

Prticle-in-cell（PIC） simulations demonstrated that,when the relativistic magnetron with diffraction output（MDO） is applied with a 410 kV voltage pulse,or when the relativistic magnetron with radial output is applied with a 350 kV voltage pulse,electrons emitted from the cathode with high energy will strike the anode block wall.The emitted secondary electrons and backscattered electrons affect the interaction between electrons and RF fields induced by the operating modes,which decreases the output power in the radial output relativistic magnetron by about 15%（10%for the axial output relativistic magnetron）,decreases the anode current by about 5%（5%for the axial output relativistic magnetron）,and leads to a decrease of electronic efficiency by 8%（6%for the axial output relativistic magnetron）.The peak value of the current formed by secondary and backscattered current equals nearly half of the amplitude of the anode current,which may help the growth of parasitic modes when the applied magnetic field is near the critical magnetic field separating neighboring modes.Thus,mode competition becomes more serious.

A refined Monte Carlo code for low-energy electron emission from gold material irradiated with sub-keV electrons

Considering the significance of low-energy electrons(LEEs;0–20 eV) in radiobiology, the sensitization potential of gold nanoparticles(AuNPs) as high-flux LEE emitters when irradiated with sub-keV electrons has been suggested. In this study, a track-structure Monte Carlo simulation code using the dielectric theory was developed to simulate the transport of electrons below 50 keV in gold. In this code, modifications, particularly for elastic scattering, are implemented for a more precise description of the LEE emission in secondary electron emission. This code was validated using the secondary electron yield and backscattering coefficient. To ensure dosimetry accuracy, we further verified the code for energy deposition calculations using the Monte Carlo toolkit, Geant4. The development of this code provides a basis for future studies regarding the role of AuNPs in targeted radionuclide radiotherapy.

Effect of Electron and/or Ion Nonthermality on Dust Acoustic Wave Propagation in a Complex Plasma in Presence of Positively Charged Dust Grains Generated by Secondary Electron Emission Process

In this paper we have developed a model to study the role of both electron and ion nonthermalities on dust acoustic wave propagation in a complex plasma in presence of positively charged dust grains. Secondary electron emission from dust grains has been considered as the source of positive dust charging. As secondary emission current depends on the flux of primary electrons, nonthermality of primary electrons changes the expression of secondary emission current from that of earlier work where primary electrons were thermal. Expression of nonthermal electron current flowing to the positively charged dust grains and consequently the expression of secondary electron current flowing out of the dust grains have been first time calculated in this paper, whereas the expression for nonthermal ion current flowing to the positively charged dust grains is present in existing literature. Dispersion relation of dust acoustic wave has been derived. From this dispersion relation real frequency and growth rate of the wave have been calculated. Results have been plotted for different strength of nonthermalities of electrons and ions.

Impact of exterior electron emission on the self-sustaining margin of hollow cathode discharge

Hollow cathode researches used to focus on the inner cavity or downstream plume,however,rarely on the gap between the throttling orifice plate and the keeper plate(T-K gap),which was found to impact the self-sustaining margin of hollow cathode discharge in this paper.Near the lower margin,the main power deposition and electron emission and ionization regions would migrate from inner cavity and downstream plume to the T-K gap,in which case,the source and destination of each m A current therein matter for the self-sustaining capability.Changing the metal surfaces in the T-K gap with emissive materials proved effective in lowering the lower margin by supplementing auxiliary thermionic emission,compensating electron loss on cold absorbing walls and suppressing discharge oscillations.By doing so,the lower margin of a 4 A hollow cathode was lowered from 1 to 0.1-0.2 A,enabling it to couple with low power Hall thruster without extra keeper current.

Sheath structure in plasma with two species of positive ions and secondary electrons

The properties of a collisionless plasma sheath are investigated by using a fluid model in which two species of positive ions and secondary electrons are taken into account. It is shown that the positive ion speeds at the sheath edge increase with secondary electron emission（SEE） coefficient, and the sheath structure is affected by the interplay between the two species of positive ions and secondary electrons. The critical SEE coefficients and the sheath widths depend strongly on the positive ion charge number, mass and concentration in the cases with and without SEE. In addition, ion kinetic energy flux to the wall and the impact of positive ion species on secondary electron density at the sheath edge are also discussed.