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Physics Department Tube Info

THE PHYSICS OF ELECTRONIC TUBES

In the Physics 0060 and 0160 Laboratory sequence there are several experiments which
involve the use of electronic tubes (e.g. Franck Hertz, electron diffraction, photoelectric
effect, e/m, etc.). You will have a better appreciation for these experiments (as well as
some useful technical knowledge) if you understand the basic physics of electronic
vacuum tubes. This handout discusses much of the basic physics of electronic vacuum
tubes (physical electronics) and the following topics are discussed:

1. Thermionic emission
2. Space charge limited current
3. Contact potential differences
4. Forward/reverse biasing
5. Field Emission

The physics of electronic tubes involves 3 different subjects: (1) the emission and
absorption of electrons at the surfaces of solids, (2) collisions of electrons with atoms or
ions in a gas, (3) the trajectories of electrons and ions in electromagnetic fields. We will
see how each of these topics is involved in the operation of a simple electronic tube (e.g.
a planar diode electronic tube). Figure 1 shows a schematic of the planar diode electronic
tube. It consists of a heater filament, cathode and an anode plate inside a vacuum tube.

References:

1. Robert L. Sproull “Modern Physics”2nd ed. (John Wiley 1963).

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2. E. M. Purcell “Electricity and Magnetism Berkeley Physics vol. 2”, (McGraw
Hill 1965).
3. P. Tipler “Modern Physics”4th edition (W.H. Freeman, 2003).
4. Teltron 2520 Planar Diode documentation (available online in Physics 0060
experiment XE200 DC Circuits and DC Supplies).
5. A.C. Mellisinos, “Experiments in Modern Physics”, (Academic Press, NY
1966).

THEORY:

The operation of this tube is as follows. A current is passed through the filament. The
current heats up the cathode and will “boil” off electrons through the process of
thermionic emission. There is a potential difference applied between the cathode and the
anode which will cause the “boiled” off electrons to accelerate toward the anode. In
steady state conditions there will be a steady current flowing through the tube (which we
will calculate in a later section). In more complicated electronic tubes there may be
additional electromagnetic accessories to focus and guide the electron beam.

A. Thermionic Emission :
Themionic emission is the emission of electrons from a hot metal or
semiconductor. This is the main source of electrons in many electronic tubes and
in many laboratory experiments. The basic physics of thermionic emission can
be described as follows: at the surface of any solid there exists an energy barrier
of a few electron volts which prevents the emission of most of the electrons in
the solid. At any temperature there will be some electrons with enough energy to
go over the energy barrier. This temperature dependent current is given by the
Richardson-Dushman formula for thermionic emission:

j e = A0T 2 e − eφ / kT (1.)

where j e = electron current density, φ = work function of solid

T = temperature in degrees Kelvin, A0 = 4πmek 2 / h 3 .
At room temperature the electron current density given by the Richardson-
Dushman formula is too small to have any practical use in electronic tubes, one
is required to raise the temperature of the filament to about 1000K to 2500K to
get a large enough emitted electron current density. This is done by driving high
enough currents through the heating filament with either an AC or DC power
supply. Equation 1 was derived by Richardson and Dushman by modeling the
metal as free electron gas obeying Fermi-Dirac statistics. Its derivation is worked
out in many solid state, statistical mechanics, or modern physics texts, we refer
the interested reader to the references for specifics.

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B. Space Charge Limited Current
In our simple plane parallel vacuum diode, we will find that electronic current in
the tube will be limited by a space charge effect. This will only happen when the
current density due to the thermionic emission is high enough. The space charge
density is given by ρ = − j / v where v is the electron velocity. Since we have a
∂ρ ∂ρ 
time independent charge density , = 0 and from + divj = 0 this implies
∂t ∂t
that j x is a constant. This implies that the product ρv x is a constant, but as we
shall see ρ and v x individually are not constant, v x will not be constant because
the electrons in figure 1 will be accelerated by the electric field in the x direction.
In steady state the density ρ must also be a solution to the Poisson equation.

∇ 2V = −4πρ (cgs units ) (2)

where V(x) is the electric potential at a point x.

In one dimension this reduces to:

d 2V ( x)
= −4πρ ( x) (3)
dx 2

This is an ordinary differential equation and we must supply the appropriate

boundary conditions to determine a unique solution for V (x) . We shall see that we
can find a relation between ρ (x) and V (x) which is determined by the electron
dynamics. From ρ = − j x / v x = j / v x since j x is a constant. The boundary
conditions for the plane parallel diode are V (0) = 0,V (d ) = V1 and
dV (0)
= 0 where d is the distance between the anode and cathode. The boundary
dx
dV (0)
condition = 0 is the condition when the space charge is great enough that
dx
no more electrons could surmount the potential barrier even if more electrons
were released from the cathode. Assuming the electrodes leave the cathode with 0
velocity we can solve for v x . By the conservation of energy we must have
1/ 2
1 / 2mv x2 = eV ( x) and hence v x = (2eV ( x) / m) and then
ρ ( x) = j (2eV ( x) / m) −1 / 2 .Plugging this into equation 3 we get:

d 2V ( x)
2
= −4 jπ m / 2eV −1 / 2 ( x) (4)
dx

The solution to this differential equation yields V ( x) = C ' x 4 / 3 .We leave it as an

exercise for the student to solve (hint try V ( x) = C ' x n and find a linear equation

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V1
to solve for n ).With the boundary condition V (d ) = V1 we then find C ' =
d 4/3
V1 4 / 3
and then substituting V ( x) = x into equation 4 will then give the
d 4/3
following formula (after a little algebra) for the plane parallel vacuum diode space
limited charge density :

⎛ 21 / 2 e1 / 2 ⎞⎛ V13 / 2 ⎞
j = ⎜⎜ ⎟⎜ 2 ⎟⎟ (cgs units) (5)
1 / 2 ⎟⎜
⎝ (9π ) m ⎠⎝ d ⎠

where V1 and d are the anode voltage and anode distance measured from the
cathode. Equation 5 is known as the Richardson 3/2 power law. From equation 5
it is evident that our plane parallel diode does not obey Ohm’s law (i.e. there is
not a linear relation between current density and applied voltage).

C Contact Potential Differences

Another detail to consider in the physics of electronic tubes is the phenomena of
contact potential difference. A small potential difference exists between 2 metals
of different work functions when they are electrically connected together. This
will occur in an electronic tube when the cathode and anode are made of different
metals or alloys of different work functions. This phenomenon is known as
contact potential difference and its rigorous explanation requires thermodynamic
arguments (e.g. the alignment of the chemical potentials of the metals in contact).

Consider 2 isolated metals of different work function in figure 2, their Fermi

levels and work functions will in general be different. When we bring these
metals into electrical contact their Fermi levels will rapidly equilibrate (in about
10 −16 seconds) and a contact potential difference will occur between the different
metals (see Figure 3) .We will use a detailed balance argument to prove this. One
can demonstrate that if the Fermi levels of the two metals did not equilibrate there
would be energy difference between the transfer rates of electrons from metal 1 to
metal 2 and from metal 2 to metal 1 and huge potential differences would rapidly
build up between the two metals. As shown in figure 3 a dipole layer (a double
layer of positive and negative charges) forms at the contact between the 2 metals
due to the electron transfer .Therefore at the external surfaces of two dissimilar
solids in contact a step in the electrostatic potential occurs, this difference in
electrostatic potential is called the contact potential difference.

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The concept of contact potential difference is especially important in the

photoelectric effect and in the Franck Hertz experiment where some of your
experimental results will be off by the contact potential from their true values.

D. FORWARD/REVERSE BIASING

Forward and reverse biasing are electronic terms that generally refer to polarity of the
potential difference put across the electronic tube. In the forward bias case
( Vcathode < Vanode ) the electrons are accelerated toward the cathode, in the reverse bias
( Vcathode > Vanode ) the electrons are repelled from the cathode. In the reverse bias

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configuration you will get vanishingly small currents compared to the forward bias
configuration. Electrical engineers use this property for a variety of useful circuits
(e.g. full wave rectifiers).As is well known solid state physicists in the 40’s and 50’s
were able to duplicate many of the electronic tube electrical properties with silicon
and germanium (i.e. p/n junctions), thus reducing the size, cost and energy
consumption of electrical circuitry and giving rise to the electronics/computer
revolution still going strong today. For completeness we mention that the terms
forward/reverse bias are more commonly used for diode p/n junctions. One defines
V > 0 when the p side of the junction is positive. This is called forward bias since this
is the bias direction for easy current flow. When the n side of the junction is
positive V < 0 this is called reverse biasing .Although solid state electronics has
largely replaced the humble vacuum electronic tube in many applications, electronic
vacuum tubes are still prevalent today (guitar amplifiers, CRTs, stereo amplifiers etc.)
and a well rounded engineer/scientist should have knowledge of this subject.

E. FIELD EMISSION

Field emission occurs when the electric field at the surface of a metal is strong
enough to accelerate electrons away from the surface of a metal. Field emission
can occur at room temperature or below and is completely independent of
temperature. At high enough electric fields the electrons in the metal can tunnel
through the potential barrier at the surface (see figure 4) .The electrons that tunnel
out have energy near the Fermi level. The probability that the electrons can tunnel
out has an exponential dependence on the tunneling distance which is inversely
proportional to the electric field. Fowler and Nordheim worked out a formula for
the tunneling current j, their theoretical expression is given by:

−7×109 φ 3 / 2u
−6 2
j = (1.6 × 10 E / φ )e E
amp / m 2 (6.)

(
where φ is the work function, E is the electric field and u ≅ 1 − 1.4 × 10 −9 E / φ 2 . )
Equation 6 is the basis for an understanding of scanning tunneling microscopes
and field emission electron microscopes which are useful tools in the
investigation and imaging of various solid surfaces at the atomic level. The
electric fields necessary to get an appreciable current are so high that they can
only be attained by making the emitter (electron field emission microscope) in the
form of a point or knife edge, STM tips must be specially prepared to be
pointlike.

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