Investigation of the emission properties of a silicon blade-type cathode

The present paper describes the properties of a silicon blade-type cathode with high technological reproducibility. The emission characteristics were obtained using a modern computerized method for studying field emission cathodes in a non-destructive pulsed mode with a flat anode. The technique includes an assessment of the emission current stability, an estimate of the magnitude of the effective parameters of the cathode (field enhancement and emission area) and the degree of their fluctuations over time. A numerical analysis of the glow patterns of the field emission projector was also performed, representing of the distribution of the current load along the edge of blade-type field emitter. (paper)