Fast pulsing of an open research thermionic converter

Abstract

Several experiments concerning anomalous phenomena in an "open" thermionic energy converter (TEC) have previously been reported. Under certain conditions a very high electron current (back current), flowing from the cold collector to the hot emitter, has been observed. This phenomenon has been studied with various methods. The conclusion is that an excited form of matter, with a very low work function is located on the collector surface and in the interelectrode space. The matter consists of highly excited cesium atoms in a condensed form, and is referred to as Rydberg matter (RM). The existence of RM has been predicted theoretically by Manykin, et al. (1981). The efficiency of the RM TEC varies considerably with parameters such as emitter temperature and collector temperature. There is also a discrepancy between the apparent collector work function when the collector is run as an electron emitter and when it is used as an electron collector. From other experiments we conclude that negative ions, Cs/sup -/, will form on the RM surface on the collector. In order to control the effect of possible negative ions, a series of experiments including rapid pulsing of the TEC is in progress. The objective of the pulsing is to use a negative pulse (with respect to the collector) to remove possible negative ions from the RM surface and restore the low work function of the RM surface.