COLD CATHODES FOR ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY

THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLD ELECTRON EMITTER TECHNOLOGY HAS THE POTENTIAL FOR BROADLY IMPACTING THE RAPIDLY GROWING AREA OF ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY. COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE INSTRUMENTATION SUCH AS AUGER SPECTROMETERS TYPICALLY EMPLOY THERMIONIC ELECTRON SOURCES WHICH RESTRICT THEIR SCOPE OF USE THROUGH FILAMENT HEATING EFFECTS AND THERMAL CRACKING OF GASES ON FILAMENTS. THESE INSTRUMENTS ARE NOT CAPABLE OF PERFORMING TIME RESOLVED PHENOMENA ON THE SUBSECOND LEVEL. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A ROBUST COLD EMITTER CAPABLE OF HIGH FREQUENCY PULSED OPERATION WOULD NO ONLY SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS BUT, MORE IMPORTANTLY, IT WOULD ENABLE A REVOLUTIONARY NEW DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF EXTREMELY HIGH-SPEED, HIGH-SENSITIVITY ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTATION EMPLOYING FAST FOURIER TRANSFORM (FFT) TIME OF FLIGHT MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES. RESEARCHERS ARE DETERMINING THE FEASIBILITY OF FABRICATING A COLD CATHODE ELECTRON SOURCE USING A NOVEL DIAMOND JUNCTION-BASED EMITTER.