Thermionic emission

Closeup of the lament on a low pressure mercury gas discharge lamp showing white thermionic emission mix coating on
the central portion of the coil. Typically made of a mixture of
barium, strontium and calcium oxides, the coating is sputtered
away through normal use, often eventually resulting in lamp failure.

Thermionic emission is the thermally induced ow of

charge carriers from a surface or over a potential-energy
barrier. This occurs because the thermal energy given
to the carrier overcomes the work function of the material. The charge carriers can be electrons or ions, and in
older literature are sometimes referred to as thermions.
After emission, a charge that is equal in magnitude and
opposite in sign to the total charge emitted is initially left
behind in the emitting region. But if the emitter is connected to a battery, the charge left behind is neutralized by
charge supplied by the battery as the emitted charge carriers move away from the emitter, and nally the emitter
will be in the same state as it was before emission.

One of the bulbs with which Edison discovered thermionic emission. It consists of an evacuated glass light bulb containing a
carbon lament (hairpin shape), with an additional metal plate
attached to wires emerging from the base. Electrons released by
the lament were attracted to the plate when it had a positive
voltage.

when the charge is emitted from one solid-state region

into another. This process is crucially important in the
operation of a variety of electronic devices and can be
used for electricity generation (such as thermionic converters and electrodynamic tethers) or cooling. The magThe classical example of thermionic emission is the emis- nitude of the charge ow increases dramatically with insion of electrons from a hot cathode into a vacuum (also creasing temperature.
known as thermal electron emission or the Edison effect) in a vacuum tube. The hot cathode can be a metal lament, a coated metal lament, or a separate structure of
metal or carbides or borides of transition metals. Vacuum 1 History
emission from metals tends to become signicant only for
temperatures over 1,000 K (730 C; 1,340 F). The sci- Because the electron was not identied as a separate physence dealing with this phenomenon has been known as ical particle until the 1897 work of J. J. Thomson, the
thermionics, but this name seems to be gradually falling word electron was not used when discussing experiments that took place before this date.
into disuse.
The term thermionic emission is now also used to refer The phenomenon was initially reported in 1873 by
to any thermally-excited charge emission process, even Frederick Guthrie in Britain.[1] While doing work on
1

2 RICHARDSONS LAW

charged objects, Guthrie discovered that a red-hot iron

sphere with a negative charge would lose its charge
(by somehow discharging it into air). He also found
that this did not happen if the sphere had a positive
charge.[2] Other early contributors included Johann Wilhelm Hittorf (18691883),[3] Eugen Goldstein (1885),[4]
and Julius Elster and Hans Friedrich Geitel (1882
1889).[5]

2 Richardsons law

The eect was rediscovered by Thomas Edison on February 13, 1880, while trying to discover the reason for
breakage of lamp laments and uneven blackening (darkest near the positive terminal of the lament) of the bulbs
in his incandescent lamps.

From band theory, there are one or two electrons per

atom in a solid that are free to move from atom to atom.
This is sometimes collectively referred to as a sea of
electrons. Their velocities follow a statistical distribution, rather than being uniform, and occasionally an electron will have enough velocity to exit the metal without
being pulled back in. The minimum amount of energy
needed for an electron to leave a surface is called the
work function. The work function is characteristic of
the material and for most metals is on the order of several electronvolts. Thermionic currents can be increased
by decreasing the work function. This often-desired goal
can be achieved by applying various oxide coatings to the
wire.

Following J. J. Thomsons identication of the electron

in 1897, the British physicist Owen Willans Richardson
began work on the topic that he later called thermionic
emission. He received a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1928
for his work on the thermionic phenomenon and especially for the discovery of the law named after him.

Edison built several experimental lamp bulbs with an extra wire, metal plate, or foil inside the bulb that was separate from the lament and thus could serve as an electrode. He connected a galvanometer, a device used to
measure current (the ow of charge), to the output of the
extra metal electrode. If the foil was put at a negative potential relative to the lament, there was no measurable
current between the lament and the foil. When the foil
was raised to a positive potential relative to the lament,
there could be a signicant current between the lament In 1901 Richardson published the results of his experthrough the vacuum to the foil if the lament was heated iments: the current from a heated wire seemed to desuciently (by its own external power source).
pend exponentially on the temperature of the wire with a
[10]
We now know that the lament was emitting electrons, mathematical form similar to the Arrhenius equation.
which were attracted to a positively charged foil, but not a Later, he proposed that the emission law should have the
[11]
negatively charged one. This one-way current was called mathematical form
the Edison eect (although the term is occasionally used
to refer to thermionic emission itself). He found that
2 W
the current emitted by the hot lament increased rapidly J = AG T e kT
with increasing voltage, and led a patent application for where J is the emission current density, T is the temperaa voltage-regulating device using the eect on Novem- ture of the metal, W is the work function of the metal, k is
ber 15, 1883 (U.S. patent 307,031,[6] the rst US patent the Boltzmann constant, and AG is a parameter discussed
for an electronic device). He found that sucient cur- next.
rent would pass through the device to operate a telegraph sounder. This was exhibited at the International In the period 1911 to 1930, as physical understanding
Electrical Exposition in Philadelphia in September 1884. of the behaviour of electrons in metals increased, variWilliam Preece, a British scientist, took back with him ous theoretical expressions (based on dierent physical
several of the Edison eect bulbs. He presented a pa- assumptions) were put forwards for AG, by Richardson,
per on them in 1885, where he referred to thermionic Saul Dushman, Ralph H. Fowler, Arnold Sommerfeld and
emission as the Edison Eect.[7][8] The British physicist Lothar Wolfgang Nordheim. Over 60 years later, there is
John Ambrose Fleming, working for the British Wire- still no consensus amongst interested theoreticians as to
less Telegraphy Company, discovered that the Edison what is the exact expression of AG, but there is agreement
Eect could be used to detect radio waves. Fleming went that AG must be written in the form
on to develop the two-element vacuum tube known as the
diode, which he patented on November 16, 1904.[9]
AG = R A0
The thermionic diode can also be congured as a device
that converts a heat dierence to electric power directly where R is a material-specic correction factor that is
without moving parts (a thermionic converter, a type of typically of order 0.5, and A0 is a universal constant given
by[11]
heat engine).
4mk 2 e
= 1.20173 106 A m2 K2
h3
where m and e are the mass and charge of an electron,
and h is Plancks constant.
A0 =

3
In fact, by about 1930 there was agreement that, due to
the wave-like nature of electrons, some proportion r of
the outgoing electrons would be reected as they reached
the emitter surface, so the emission current density would
be reduced, and R would have the value (1-r). Thus,
one sometimes sees the thermionic emission equation
written in the form

J = (1 rav )AG T 2 e

J(F, T, W ) = AG T 2 e

Considerable confusion exists in the literature of this area

because: (1) many sources do not distinguish between AG
and A0 , but just use the symbol A (and sometimes the
name Richardson constant) indiscriminately; (2) equations with and without the correction factor here denoted
by R are both given the same name; and (3) a variety
of names exist for these equations, including Richardson equation, Dushmans equation, Richardson
Dushman equation and RichardsonLaueDushman
equation. In the literature, the elementary equation is
sometimes given in circumstances where the generalized
equation would be more appropriate, and this in itself can
cause confusion. To avoid misunderstandings, the meaning of any A-like symbol should always be explicitly
dened in terms of the more fundamental quantities involved.
Because of the exponential function, the current increases
rapidly with temperature when kT is less than W. (For
essentially every material, melting occurs well before kT
= W.)

Schottky emission

Main article: Schottky eect

In electron emission devices, especially electron guns, the
thermionic electron emitter will be biased negative relative to its surroundings. This creates an electric eld of
magnitude F at the emitter surface. Without the eld,
the surface barrier seen by an escaping Fermi-level electron has height W equal to the local work-function. The
electric eld lowers the surface barrier by an amount W,
and increases the emission current. This is known as the
Schottky eect (named for Walter H. Schottky) or eld

(W W )
kT

W
kT

However, a modern theoretical treatment by Modinos

assumes that the band-structure of the emitting material must also be taken into account. This would introduce a second correction factor B into R, giving
AG = B (1 rav )A0 . Experimental values for the
generalized coecient AG are generally of the order of
magnitude of A0 , but do dier signicantly as between
dierent emitting materials, and can dier as between
dierent crystallographic faces of the same material. At
least qualitatively, these experimental dierences can be
explained as due to dierences in the value of R.

enhanced thermionic emission. It can be modeled by a

simple modication of the Richardson equation, by replacing W by (W W). This gives the equation[12][13]

W =

e3 F
,
40

where 0 is the electric constant (also, formerly, called the

vacuum permittivity).
Electron emission that takes place in the eld-andtemperature-regime where this modied equation applies
is often called Schottky emission. This equation is relatively accurate for electric eld strengths lower than about
108 V m1 . For electric eld strengths higher than 108 V
m1 , so-called Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling begins
to contribute signicant emission current. In this regime,
the combined eects of eld-enhanced thermionic and
eld emission can be modeled by the Murphy-Good equation for thermo-eld (T-F) emission.[14] At even higher
elds, FN tunneling becomes the dominant electron emission mechanism, and the emitter operates in the so-called
cold eld electron emission (CFE)" regime.
Thermionic emission can also be enhanced by interaction
with other forms of excitation such as light.[15] For example, excited Cs-vapours in thermionic converters form
clusters of Cs-Rydberg matter which yield a decrease of
collector emitting work function from 1.5 eV to 1.00.7
eV. Due to long-lived nature of Rydberg matter this low
work function remains low which essentially increases the
low-temperature converters eciency.[16]

4 Photon-enhanced
emission

thermionic

Photon-enhanced thermionic emission (PETE) is a process developed by scientists at Stanford University that
harnesses both the light and heat of the sun to generate electricity and increases the eciency of solar power
production by more than twice the current levels. The
device developed for the process reaches peak eciency
above 200 C, while most silicon solar cells become inert after reaching 100 C. Such devices work best in
parabolic dish collectors, which reach temperatures up to
800 C. Although the team used a gallium nitride semiconductor in its proof-of-concept device, it claims that
the use of gallium arsenide can increase the devices efciency to 5560 percent, nearly triple that of existing
systems,[17][18] and 1217 percent more than existing 43
percent multi-junction solar cells.[19]

Thermionic
graphene

emission

from

Compared with the traditional bulk metal or semiconductor materials, graphene has many unique and excellent
properties, such as atomic layer thickness, linear band
structure near Dirac cone, ultrahigh Fermi velocity, etc.,
making traditional Richardsons law derived for bulk materials invalid for graphene. Researchers from Singapore
University of Technology and Design have proposed that
there exists a new scaling of thermionic emission from
a single-layer graphene which has been veried with an
experiment.[20] They also proposed that graphene-based
vacuum thermionic energy converter has an eciency of
about 45%, with cathode temperature ranging from 700
K to 900 K, which is greatly reduced compared to the traditional thermionic converter of above 1200 K and has a
promising application in recycling the waste heat from industrial processes.[21]

See also
Space charge, work function key physics concepts that inuence thermionic emission.
Hot cathode article describing construction and
behaviour of practical thermionic cathodes.

[3] See:
Hittorf, W. (1869). Ueber die Electricittsleitung
der Gase [On electrical conduction of gases]. Annalen der Physik und Chemie. 2nd series (in German) 136 (1): 131.
Hittorf, W. (1869). Ueber die Electricittsleitung
der Gase [On electrical conduction of gases]. Annalen der Physik und Chemie. 2nd series (in German) 136: 197234.
Hittorf, W. (1874). Ueber die Electricittsleitung
der Gase [On electrical conduction of gases]. Annalen der Physik und Chemie (in German). Jubalband (anniversary volume): 430445.
Hittorf, W. (1879). Ueber die Electricittsleitung
der Gase [On electrical conduction of gases]. Annalen der Physik und Chemie. 3rd series (in German) 7: 553631.
Hittorf, W. (1883). Ueber die Electricittsleitung
der Gase [On electrical conduction of gases]. Annalen der Physik und Chemie. 3rd series (in German) 20: 705755.
Hittorf, W. (1884). Ueber die Electricittsleitung
der Gase [On electrical conduction of gases]. Annalen der Physik und Chemie. 3rd series (in German) 21: 90139.
[4] E. Goldstein (1885) Ueber electrische Leitung in Vacuum (On electric conduction in vacuum) Annalen der
Physik und Chemie, 3rd series, 24 : 79-92.
[5] See:

Thermionic converter a type of heat engine that

directly produces electrical power via thermionic
emission.

Elster and Geitel (1882) Ueber die Electricitt der

Flamme (On the electricity of ames), Annalen
der Physik und Chemie, 3rd series, 16 : 193-222.

Vacuum tube, X-ray tube, uorescent lamp, cathode

ray tube vacuum electronic devices that typically
use a thermionic cathode as an electron source.

Elster and Geitel (1883) Ueber Electricittserregung beim Contact von Gasen und glhenden Krpern (On the generation of electricity by the contact of gases and incandescent bodies), Annalen der
Physik und Chemie, 3rd series, 19 : 588-624.

Thermoelectric eect not to be confused with

thermionic emission, thermoelectricity is the thermal generation of electric currents within solid conductors.

REFERENCES

References

[1] See:
Guthrie, Frederick (October 1873). On a relation
between heat and static electricity. The London,
Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and
Journal of Science. 4th 46: 257266.
Guthrie, Frederick (February 13, 1873). On a
new relation between heat and electricity. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 21: 168
169. doi:10.1098/rspl.1872.0037.
[2] Richardson, O. W. (2003). Thermionic Emission from Hot
Bodies. Wexford College Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-1929148-10-3.

Elster and Geitel (1885) Ueber die unipolare

Leitung erhitzter Gase (On the unipolar conductivity of heated gases) Annalen der Physik und
Chemie, 3rd series, 26 : 1-9.
Elster and Geitel (1887) Ueber die Electrisirung
der Gase durch glhende Krper (On the electrication of gases by incandescent bodies) Annalen
der Physik und Chemie, 3rd series, 31 : 109-127.
Elster and Geitel (1889) Ueber die Electricittserregung beim Contact verdnnter Gase mit galvanisch glhenden Drhten (On the generation of
electricity by contact of rareed gas with electrically heated wires) Annalen der Physik und Chemie,
3rd series, 37 : 315-329.
[6] US 307031, Edison, Thomas A., Electrical indicator,
published November 15, 1883, issued October 21, 1884
[7] Preece, William Henry (1885). On a peculiar behaviour
of glow lamps when raised to high incandescence. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 38: 219230.
doi:10.1098/rspl.1884.0093. Preece coins the term the
Edison eect on page 229.

[8] Josephson, M. (1959). Edison. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 007-033046-8.

[9] See:
Provisional specication for a thermionic valve was
lodged on November 16, 1904. In this document,
Fleming coined the British term valve for what
in North America is called a vacuum tube": The
means I employ for this purpose consists in the insertion in the circuit of the alternating current of an
appliance which permits only the passage of electric
current in one direction and constitutes therefore an
electrical valve.
GB 190424850, Fleming, John Ambrose, Improvements in instruments for detecting and measuring alternating electric currents, published August 15, 1905, issued September 21, 1905
US 803684, Fleming, John Ambrose, Instrument
for converting alternating electric currents into continuous currents, published April 29, 1905, issued
November 7, 1905

[18] Schwede, J. W.; et al.

(2010).
Photonenhanced thermionic emission for solar concentrator systems.
Nature Materials 9 (9): 762.
Bibcode:2010NatMa...9..762S. doi:10.1038/nmat2814.
[19] Green, M. A.; Emery, K.; Hishikawa, Y.; Warta, W.
(2011). Solar cell eciency tables (version 37)".
Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications 19
(1): 84. doi:10.1002/pip.1088.
[20] Liang, Shi-Jun; Ang, L. K. (2015). Electron Thermionic
Emission from Graphene and a Thermionic Energy
Converter. Physical Review Applied 3 (1): 014002.
arXiv:1501.05056.
Bibcode:2015PhRvP...3a4002L.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevApplied.3.014002.
[21] Millikin, M. (9 March 2015). SUTD team proposes lowtemperature thermionic converter with graphene cathode;
about 45% eciency. Green Car Congress Report.

8 External links

[10] O. W. Richardson (1901) On the negative radiation from

hot platinum, Philosophical of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 11 : 286-295.

How vacuum tubes really work with a section

on thermionic emission, with equations, john-aharper.com.

[11] Crowell, C. R. (1965).

The Richardson constant for thermionic emission in Schottky barrier
diodes.
Solid-State Electronics 8 (4): 395399.
Bibcode:1965SSEle...8..395C.
doi:10.1016/00381101(65)90116-4.

Owen Richardsons Nobel lecture on thermionics,

nobel.se, December 12, 1929. (PDF)

[12] Kiziroglou, M. E.; Li, X.; Zhukov, A. A.;

De Groot, P. A. J.; De Groot, C. H. (2008).
Thermionic eld emission at electrodeposited NiSi Schottky barriers.
Solid-State Electronics 52
(7):
10321038.
Bibcode:2008SSEle..52.1032K.
doi:10.1016/j.sse.2008.03.002.
[13] Orlo, J. (2008). Schottky emission. Handbook of
Charged Particle Optics (2nd ed.). CRC Press. pp. 56.
ISBN 978-1-4200-4554-3.
[14] Murphy, E. L.; Good, G. H. (1956). Thermionic
Emission,
Field Emission,
and the Transition Region.
Physical Review 102 (6):
14641473.
Bibcode:1956PhRv..102.1464M.
doi:10.1103/PhysRev.102.1464.
[15] Mal'Shukov, A. G.; Chao, K. A. (2001). OptoThermionic Refrigeration in Semiconductor HetPhysical Review Letters 86 (24):
erostructures.
55705573.
Bibcode:2001PhRvL..86.5570M.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.5570.
[16] Svensson, R.; Holmlid, L. (1992). Very low work
function surfaces from condensed excited states: Rydber matter of cesium. Surface Science. 269/270: 695
699. Bibcode:1992SurSc.269..695S. doi:10.1016/00396028(92)91335-9.
[17] Bergeron, L. (2 August 2010). New solar energy conversion process discovered by Stanford engineers could
revamp solar power production. Stanford Report. Retrieved 2010-08-04.

Derivations of thermionic emission equations from

an undergraduate lab, csbsju.edu.

+
-

Electron ow

No current

The Edison eect in a diode tube. A diode tube is connected in two

congurations, one has a ow of electrons and the other does not.
Note that the arrows represent electron current, not conventional
current.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1

Text

Thermionic emission Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermionic_emission?oldid=727992767 Contributors: Rjstott, Heron, RTC,

Michael Hardy, Tim Starling, SebastianHelm, Jdforrester, Nikai, Alaric, Reddi, David Shay, Omegatron, Fredrik, Ayucat, Moink, Rsduhamel, Jeremiah, Art Carlson, Everyking, Karol Langner, PFHLai, Deglr6328, TedPavlic, Limbo socrates, Srbauer, Sfahey, EricBarbour, Cmdrjameson, Elipongo, Matt Britt, Bert Hickman, RussBlau, Kanie, Rickyp, Stillnotelf, Wtshymanski, Gene Nygaard, Richard
Arthur Norton (1958- ), DonPMitchell, Prashanthns, Nanite, Edison, Rjwilmsi, Adjusting, John Dalton, YurikBot, Fabartus, Shaddack,
Howcheng, Prolineserver, Voidxor, E2mb0t~enwiki, Zwobot, Adicarlo, Ms2ger, Ke6jjj, SmackBot, WilliamThweatt, Apina~enwiki, Direvus, InvictaHOG, Nabster, Davepealing, Jxm, Arsonal, Meitme, SundarBot, EmileVictor, Nakon, DMacks, Kendrick7, CyrilB, Tawkerbot2, Chetvorno, CmdrObot, Tarchon, N2e, DanielRigal, Dept of Alchemy, Cydebot, A876, Khatru2, Nothra, Mikewax, Thijs!bot, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Ashchap, Tkirkman, JRLuke, LorenzoB, Cpl Syx, Ironicon, Dr. Morbius, Glrx, Maurice Carbonaro, Yonidebot,
STBotD, Ojovan, Eddy Kurentz, Hanstest, VolkovBot, Kyle the bot, TXiKiBoT, Davehi1, Hqb, Siwardio, Doctorp9999, Cwkmail, Mangostar, Lisatwo, Anchor Link Bot, Ascidian, ClueBot, The Thing That Should Not Be, Mild Bill Hiccup, Kitchen Knife, Maarschalk,
Harlock81, D.M. from Ukraine, Addbot, Bae gab1978, Lightbot, Zorrobot, Yobot, KamikazeBot, AnomieBOT, Citation bot, Er Cicero, Xqbot, Pvkeller, GrouchoBot, Omnipaedista, Spellage, RGForbes, M2mayer, Citation bot 1, I dream of horses, Lotje, Scikris,
Dalba, RjwilmsiBot, Nmillerche, AndyHe829, EmausBot, Alxmel, RockMagnetist, Bf50613, ClueBot NG, Manubot, Helpful Pixie Bot,
Wbm1058, Bibcode Bot, Jrwil2001, Mn-imhotep, Glacialfox, 5LAY3R95, Comfr, I am One of Many, Prokaryotes, Jianhui67, Monkbot,
Starstrux, BU Rob13, Victor liang1, WikiLova12123, Popy singh and Anonymous: 90

9.2

Images

File:Ambox_contradict.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Ambox_contradict.svg License: Public domain Contributors: self-made using Image:Emblem-contradict.svg Original artist: penubag, Rugby471
File:EdisonEffect.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/EdisonEffect.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/wiki/File:Edisoneffect.png Original artist: User:Omegatron
File:Edison_light_bulb_with_plate.jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Edison_light_bulb_with_
plate.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Downloaded August 14, 2013 from <a data-x-rel='nofollow' class='external text'
href='http://books.google.com/books?id=TnZJAQAAIAAJ,<span>,&,</span>,pg=PA75'>Clayton H. Sharp (January 1922) The Edison
Eect and its modern applications, Journal of the AIEE, Vol. 41, No. 1, American Institute of Electrical Engineers, New York, p. 75,
g. 10</a> on Google Books Original artist: Clayton H. Sharp
File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0
Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007
File:Thermionic_filament.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Thermionic_filament.jpg License: CCBY-SA-3.0 Contributors: en.wikipedia.org Original artist: Created by Deglr6328, uploaded by Superclemente

9.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0