X-ray tube with a graphite field emitter inflamed at high temperature

Abstract

The authors developed a class of novel graphite-based field emitters, known as graphite field emitters inflamed at high temperature (GFEIHTs), which includes numerous edges and juts. The GFEIHT field emission characteristics are investigated in a vacuum tube (10−7 Pa), and an anode current exceeding 2 mA is obtained. The authors also fabricated tipped-off x-ray tubes using GFEIHTs. No degradation in the anode current is observed under the operating conditions of 16.6 kV anode voltage and 160 μA anode current. The current dispersion, defined as the standard deviation (σ)/mean over 24 h, is 2.8%. The authors successfully demonstrated radiography and x-ray fluorescence spectrometry using an x-ray tube with GFEIHT.