from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Anodizing is a technique by which thin oxide layers can be formed on a surface. Thin oxide layers have been found to be useful in a variety of applications, including emitters of electrons. Tungsten is still a common choice for cold field emitters in commercial microscopy applications. Its suitable quality can be further improved by thin film deposition. Not only the emission characteristic can be improved, but also the emitter operating time can be extended. Tungsten oxide is known for its excellent resistance to corrosion and chemical attack due to its stable crystal structure and strong chemical bonds between tungsten and oxygen atoms. Many techniques with different advantages and disadvantages have been used for this purpose. Anodization was chosen for this work because of the controllable uniform coverage of the material and its easy availability without the need for expensive complex equipment. The anodizing process involves applying an electrical potential to tungsten while it is immersed in an electrolyte solution. This creates a thin layer of tungsten oxide on the surface of the metal. The thickness and properties of the resulting oxide layer can be controlled by adjusting the anodization conditions, such as the electrolyte solution, voltage, and the duration of the process. In this work, H3PO4 was used as the electrolyte to test whether these tungsten oxide layers would be useful for electron emitters, for use in electron guns and other devices that require high-quality electron emitters. The properties were evaluated using appropriate techniques. In general, anodization of tungsten to form thin layers of tungsten oxide layers is a promising technique for producing high quality electron emitters.
Keywords: Cold-field emission, thin layer deposition, tungsten oxide, resonance enhanced tunneling, anodization© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.