Abstract
The presence of space-charge results in a decrease of the potential at any point of the cathode-anode space. This effect causes: 1) a decrease of the applied field strength at the cathode surface, 2) an increase of the image potential barrier. In this paper the influence of the second effect on the field emission has been investigated. An expression for the increase of the effective work function Δφ as a function of the applied field and the cathode radius in a spherical electrode system has been obtained using the electrical image method. The calculated plot of log J c versus E c 10 8 showed a deviation from the Fowler-Nordheim linear plot, with a “knee” appearing for different cathode radii at different current densities. It has also been shown that the second effect causes a “knee” in the Fowler-Nordheim plot at current densities approximately two orders lower than the first effect.
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