PBPL Tech Notes: 2008-00001

TECH NOTES

MICRO PYROELECRIC ELECTRON GUN

Urd Horberg Lacroix

Supervised by Gil Travish and Prof James Rosenzweig

Abstract
This paper describes an ongoing experiment for construction of a ferroelectric micro electron
gun with kinetic energies of 25keV. Described are concepts on electron emission and
acceleration with emphasis on using pyroelectric crystals as an electron source. A setup has been
build to test pyroelectric crystals as emitters and as generators of electric fields for electron
acceleration. The purpose of constructing a micro electron gun is to use it as a part of a high
gradient laser powered micro accelerating platform capable of accelerating electrons to energies
of ~1 - 2MeV. The construction of this platform is an ongoing project by R. B. Yoder, G.
Travish and J. B. Rosenzweig.[2] The applications of an inexpensive near relativistic micro
electron source are manifold and include the possibility of treating cancer with electron or X-ray
radiation directly at the tumor[12] Ferroelectric electron emission have been studied by many
including Rosenman[1] and Brownridge[4] all in which the emitting crystals are much larger
than the crystal proposed for the micro gun. So one of the great challenges for this experiment is
to measure electron emission from micro crystals. The minimum beam energy for the emitted
electrons is approximately 25keV, which is the threshold energy in which the electrons can be
accelerated in the laser field. Hence another challenge of this project is to provide a field of at
least 25keV.
 Micro pyroelectric electron gun
Urd Hørberg Lacroix
June, 2008

Physics 199 supervised by Gil Travish and Prof James Rosenzweig

1
1 Introduction
This paper describes an ongoing experiment for construction of a ferroelectric
micro electron gun with kinetic energies of 25keV. Described are concepts on
electron emission and acceleration with emphasis on using pyroelectric crys-
tals as an electron source. A setup has been build to test pyroelectric crystals
as emitters and as generators of electric fields for electron acceleration.

The purpose of constructing a micro electron gun is to use it as a part of a

high gradient laser powered micro accelerating platform capable of accelerat-
ing electrons to energies of ∼ 1 − 2M eV . The construction of this platform
is an ongoing project by R. B. Yoder, G. Travish and J. B. Rosenzweig.[2]
The applications of an inexpensive near relativistic micro electron source are
manifold and include the possibility of treating cancer with electron or X-ray
radiation directly at the tumor[12]

Ferroelectric electron emission have been studied by many including Rosenman[1]

and Brownridge[4] all in which the emitting crystals are much larger than the
crystal proposed for the micro gun. So one of the great challenges for this
experiment is to measure electron emission from micro crystals. The mini-
mum beam energy for the emitted electrons is approximately 25keV which
is the threshold energy in which the electrons can be accelerated in the laser
field. Hence another challenge of this project is to provide a field of at least
25keV.

2
Contents
1 Introduction 2

2 Background 4
2.1 Micro Accelerator Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Injection into accelerating micro structure . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 Previous experiments on ferroelectric emission and acceleration 6

3 Designing a Micro Gun 7

3.1 Electron generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.1.1 Cathodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.1.2 Charge output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 Electron acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2.1 Acceleration by field of pyroelectric . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2.2 Acceleration from field of cathode . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2.3 Using a second pyroelectric as a electric field source . . 9
3.2.4 Double geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4 Basic theory on ferroelectric electron emission 11

4.1 Pyroelectricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2 Conditions for Pyroelectric Electron Emission . . . . . . . . . 11
4.3 Electron Energies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

5 Experimental Electron Emission 14

5.1 Setup for testing pyroelectric cathode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.1.1 Vacuum setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.1.2 Materials for the emitting crystal . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

6 Ferroelectric field generation 17

6.1 Experimental testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.2 Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

7 Conclusion 20

3
2 Background
The experimenting with ferroelectric cathode and electron acceleration, serve
to understand the particle source for the micro accelerator platform (MAP)–
a device that generates electrons and accelerates them to near relativistic
energies of ∼ 1 − 2M eV in less than a mm.

2.1 Micro Accelerator Platform

The micro accelerator platform is a monolithic particle source, a micro device
that generates electrons and accelerates them to near relativistic energies of
∼ 1 − 2M eV . The electrons are generated by the cathode and injected into
a dielectric micro structure where they are accelerated by a resonant laser
field.
The resonant field is constructed by coupling a ∼ 1µm laser into a sandwich
of two dielectric layers separated by a 1µm vacuum gap for particle accelera-
tion(Fig. 1). Periodic slots in a reflective layer above and below the dielectric
creates an electric field where the phase velocity along the beam trajectory
matches the phase velocity of the particles. This structure results in a high
gradient(∼ 1GeV /m) for the particle acceleration.

Accelerators cover a wide range of industrial and health care application,

but the applications and accessibility of conventional accelerators are limited
by size and cost. Since fabrication of the MAP makes use of standard semi-
conductor techniques and can be powered by a cheap conventional laser the
cost of fabrication will be less than one tenth of current radiotherapy linacs.
While radiation therapy has proven very successful to treating some types
of cancer, the sideeffects of radiating the body internally by radioactive sub-
stances or externally by gamma-radiation are serious and many cancer types
still have a very low survival rate. Using MAP as a low cost radiotherapy
linac will save lives of patients who do not have accessibility to conventional
radiation therapy. The size of the MAP will make it fit on an endoscope for
internal radiation therapy and might provide a better alternative than the
existing linacs.

4
Figure 1: A diagram showing the micro accelerator platform from [12].
Shown are the electron source the coupling slot and the relevant dimensions.
a ∼ 0.1µm, b ∼ 0.3µm and total length is ∼ 1mm or 1600 structure periods

2.2 Injection into accelerating micro structure

Injection electron beams into micro structures requires a narrow beam source
to be directed into a narrow a ≈ 1µm slit and the time scale of the accel-
erating fields requires the electron beam to be pulsed in femtosecond time
scale.Previous solutions to overcome these problems include modulating the
beam from an RF gun by optical bunching[13].
The MAP would avoid these injection problems by having the electron gen-
eration and injection being an integral part of the accelerating device.
Still the size of the micro structure would provide a challenge by setting a
limit to the size of the emitter.
The condition for electron acceleration w/kz = βc sets a minimum beam
energy of 23.keV for the wave-equation to be solvable. Where ω is the fre-
quency of the structure, β is the normalized particle velocity and c is the
speed of light. Producing this field will provide a great challenge for the
micro gun since to be an integral part of the MAP this requires the gun to
accelerate electron from rest to this energy within a millimeter.

5
The cathode represented in this project suggests that this is solved by ferro-
electric field acceleration.

2.3 Previous experiments on ferroelectric emission and

acceleration
Electron emission from ferroelectrics has been a research topic for many years.
In 1974 Rosenblum published a paper on the study of pyroelectric electron
emission from the LiN bO3 . Later several other people have been study-
ing ferroelectric electron emission including Rosenman[1], and Brownridge[4]
who also studied the effects of dilute gases on electron emission and electron
energies.
In 2004 Geuther and Danon published a paper experimentally showing that
the field between two LiN b03 facing each other was enough to accelerate
electron to energies higher than 215keV [3].

6
3 Designing a Micro Gun
3.1 Electron generation
3.1.1 Cathodes
While this project focuses on ferroelectric electron emission other types of
cathodes are possible.
We consider three possibilities (See Table 1.):

1. Photo emission

2. Thermionic emission

3. Field emission

With photo emission, the electrons are excited by a laser to escape the
surface potential, which gives large electron current. The disadvantages are
that this would be a much more impractical construction since it would re-
quire ether a second external laser or a BBO for frequency doubling of the
laser for the MAP.
An other option is thermionic emission where heating to high temperatures
will release electrons from material such as LiB6 . The problem with this is
that the temperatures should be in the order of 1000K which will heat the
whole accelerator. While a extremely hot electron radiation source is not
desirable high temperatures might also course structural damage.
Field emission is a process where a strong applied electric field removes elec-
trons from surface of a material. Emission occurs by lowering the surface
barrier through the Schottky effect. In practice shaping the surface allows
for higher peak fields at desired emission point.
For this project we focus on field emission and use ferroelectric crystals to
generate the required fields. A ferroelectric is a crystal which can be spon-
taneously polarized by either heating(pyroelectricity) or by a stress on the
crystal(piezoelectricity). The polarization gradient at the surface will give
rise to two charged surfaces. The negative surface can be used as a cathode
when the electrons can escape the surface barrier, ether because of a large
surface field(field emission) or by photoelectric emission.

Several experiments have already been done with pyroelectric electron

emission[1][6][4], where small temperature changes are enough to produce

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electron currents by field emission alone.

Table 1. A comparison of three forms of particle emission

Emission Advantages Disadvantages
Field Emission Simple Low emitting current
Electrons accelerated
by the pyroelectric field
Low temperatures needed
Photo Emission High peak current Need a second external laser
Easy to control or a BBO for frequency
Can be Pulsed doubling the MAP laser
Thermionic Emission High average current Operate at high temperature
(∼ 1000C)
Simple How to heat the crystal
Continuous emission

3.1.2 Charge output

The output requirement MAP is a pulsed current with 104 − 105 e− in 100f s
with a repetition rate of ∼ 107 Hz. This gives a desired beam output for the
electron gun on the order of 10−7 A average current.
While Rosenmann[1] suggests that pyroelectric field emission will give cur-
rents in the order 10−12 −10−9 A/cm2 dependent on the pyroelectric material,
experiments reported there are with large crystals and long time scales com-
pared to that of the MAP, and we might see different effects when emitting
from micro crystals in very short timescales. Another distinction between
our experiment and their work is an external field applied to the emitting
crystal which should enhance the current. Also etching structures into the
emitting surface might give a higher emission rate.

3.2 Electron acceleration

The minimum trapping energy of ∼ 25keV requires a voltage difference of
25kV between the cathode and the slit of the micro structure. If the distance
is 1mm this will require a strong electric field in the order of 105 − 106 V /cm
A simplified calculation on the energy of a electron accelerated in the field of a
LiNbO3 crystal can be made by assuming that the field from the pyroelectric
will be that of a circular disc of charge σ = γ∆T . A temperature change of

8
10K will generate a surface charge of σ ≈ 10−7 C/cm2 with a surface field in
the order of 10M V /m.
If the radius of the disc is R = 0.5mm the electrons will gain an energy
∆U ≤ eσR/20 = 28.4keV .

3.2.1 Acceleration by field of pyroelectric

The screening charges of the electrons on emitting crystal will create high
electric field which in will result in acceleration of the emitted electrons.
A simplified calculation on the energy of a electron accelerated in the field of a
LiNbO3 crystal can be made by assuming that the field from the pyroelectric
will be that of a circular disc of charge σ = γ∆T . A temperature change of
10K will generate a surface charge of σ ≈ 10−7 C/cm2 with a surface field in
the order of 10M V /m.
If the radius of the disc is R = 0.5mm the electrons will gain an energy
∆U ≤ eσR/20 = 28.4keV .

3.2.2 Acceleration from field of cathode

The emitted electrons will be accelerated in the field produced by the emitting
crystal itself and in the case of a large crystal this can be enough to accelerate
electrons to above 25keV. Brownridge has done experiments with LiNbO3
and LiTaO3 with electron energy beams up to 170kEV[4].

3.2.3 Using a second pyroelectric as a electric field source

All these experiments are done with large crystals and in the case of a crystal
with an emitting area of ∼ 1µm × 20µm this might not be the case and an
external field will be needed. Still considering the pyroelectric ability to
create high field the external field could be provided by a larger pyroelectric
crystal with a high pyroelectric coefficient(Fig.2 (a))
Also when needing an external electron source pyroelectric crystal could still
provide the high electric field for electron acceleration.
For instance T GS crystals are not a very good electron emitters but can
produce a very high electric fields and has experimentally proven to accelerate

9
electrons to 130keV 1

(a) (b)

Figure 2: Emission with pyroelectric field enhancement. (a) The electron

emitting crystal is mounted to a larger pyroelectric crystal in order to create
a large field for acceleration. (b) A pyroelectric with a geometry allowing for
electrons to pass through it is placed with it’s z+ surface facing the electron
emitting crystal.

3.2.4 Double geometry

When the field of the pyroelectric crystals is used to accelerate the emitted
electrons double geometry can enhance the electron energy. Fig.2 is a setup
from an experiment with double geometry where two heated LiNbO3 crystals
are placed with the opposite charged surfaces pointing towards each other[3].
If this is to be used for an electron gun, one could imagine the non-emitting
crystal being a coil.

1
Rosenmann[1] has reference to an experiment by ”Sujak and Syslo” with TGS in which
electrons are accelerated to 130keV.

10
4 Basic theory on ferroelectric electron emis-
sion
In the following chapter we will provide some basic theory on ferroelectric
electron emission. Most of this work is from Rosenman’s paper ”Electron
emission from ferroelectrics”[1]

4.1 Pyroelectricity
In 314BC the Greeks discovered that the pyroelectric material turmuline be-
came attractive when heated, while in 1756 this was proven to be related to
electricity2 .
A pyroelectric is a crystal that without an external electric field become po-
larized when heated. The polarization is homogenous throughout the crystal
and the polarization difference at the surface gives rise to a depolarizating
field. To compensate for the field a layer of localization charges of non-
ferroelectric origin acts as screening charges(Fig. 3). The polarization of the
pyroelectrics when heated or cooled is given by ∆P = γ∆T where γ is the
pyroelectric coefficient which depend on the material.

Table 1. Physical parameters for pyroelectrics 3

Sample Pyroelectric coefficientγ, C/(cm2 K) relative dielectric permitivity 
LiNbO3 0.82 × 10−8 31
LiTaO3 2.3 × 10−8 47
−8
TGS 3 × 10 49

4.2 Conditions for Pyroelectric Electron Emission

The first time pyroelectric was observed experimentally to emit electrons
was by by Rosenblum who studied LiN bO3 in 10−6 T orr vacuum[1]. Heating
LiN bO3 to 400K and letting it cool to room temperature, he observed fer-
roelectric electron emission without any photostimulation.
Electron emission occurs from the polar surfaces of pyroelectric due to un-
compensated charges, by tunneling or overbarrier emission. In air a change
of polarization due to change in temperature will be compensated by free
2
[11]
3
data is found in [1] and [10]

11
charges in the air, but if the crystal is placed in vacuum the change in po-
larization will give rise to an electric field which lowers the surface barrier.
If this field is large, a process of electron emission will occur neutralizing
uncompensated charges at the polar surface.

(a) (b)

Figure 3: (a) Equilibrium state for ferroelectric bulk. (b)Ferroelectric emis-

sion. The surface field is outside the crystal bulk is Ed,out . The layer of
localized screening charges can be considered a dielectric, with a dielectric
constant cr . Both figures are from [1]

4.3 Electron Energies

Both the electron emission and the energy of the emitted electrons depend
on the field outside the crystal bulk. For a flat planer crystal placed parallel
to a detector(Fig. 3) this field will be given by[1].

∆P 1
Ed,out = . (1)
0 1 + g ab cr
d
dcr

Where 0 is the permativity of free space and cr is the permativity of the
crystal and the distances are given on Fig. 3. The electron energy will depend
on the ferroelectric surface potential φcr . With two charged capacitors, the
crystal Ccr , and the capacitor formed by the outer surface of the crystal and
the surface of the electron detector Cgap , connected in parallel the potential

12
becomes(Fig. 3).
∆P
φcr = (2)
Ccr + Cgap
Hence the electron energy will increase when the crystal thickness or the gap
between the crystal and the detector is increased.
For a small emitting crystal the electron energies should be optimized by Cgap
and equation 1 suggest that this could be done by using a second pyroelectric
crystal as field generator.

13
Figure 4: Setup for pyroelectric electron emission. The breadboard in the
picture will be mounted in the vacuum chamber (Fig. 5). The crystal is
mounted on a peltier junction which is mounted to a temperature sink. The
peltier junction is controlled by a temperature controller. In front of the
emitting edge of the crystal is a scintillator screen on a motor allowing for
the distance between the crystal and the screen to be varied. A camera
measures emitted light from the scintillor

5 Experimental Electron Emission

A setup has been build to test electron emission from LiN bO3 and is almost
ready for testing.

5.1 Setup for testing pyroelectric cathode

The heater used to heat the crystal is a small peltier junction which is con-
trolled by a temperature controller providing the option for both heating and
cooling. The crystal is mounted to the peltier with its z- surface placed in
front of a piece of plastic scintillator. When electrons hit the scintillator it
fluoresces photons which can be measured with a camera in order to deter-

14
Figure 5: Vacuum chamber and ion pump. The empty chamber is pumped
to a pressure of 10−7 T orr. The breadboard with the setup will be mounted
vertically inside the chamber.

mine the electron count. Since the electron to photon ratio is ?(have to look
that up) even very small current will be measurable.
The scintillator is attached to a motor such that the distance between the
screen and the crystal can be varied in order to see how this effect the current.

5.1.1 Vacuum setup

The whole setup is mounted on a board placed in a vacuum chamber. The
chamber is first pumped by an turbo molecular pump and then by an ion-
pump. The pressure is measured by an ion gauge an by the pump current
and the data is collected by a computer. A pressure at low 10−7 T orr has
already been achieved with an empty chamber.
In future a controlled leak of gas (e.g. Argon) will be connected to allow for
study of the effects of background ions on the electron emission. Picture of

15
vacuum chamber

5.1.2 Materials for the emitting crystal

LiN bO3 is the material of choice since it has a large pyroelectric coefficient
and in many previous experiments has proven to produce a large emitting
current.
The first experiments are to be done with an x-cut 500µm thick LiN bO3
wafer which has been diced into 1cmx1cm crystals. The plan is to have the
z-surfaces polished with a focused ion beam which can also be used to create
patterns in the surface to enhance the emission.
For use in the micro accelerator platform the emitting area of the crys-
tal is limited by the gap in which the electron are accelerated which is
∼ 1µm × 50µm. The actual crystal could be bigger. Going from several
mm to microns will have an effect on field and an effect on the charge output
because the emitting area is smaller.

16
Figure 6: Setup for pyroelectric electron acceleration. Electron are emitted
by a DC electron gun and accelerated by a pyroelectric crystal. The electron
beam passes through an anode and a pair of deflectors and the deflected
angle i measured by scintillator and a camera. The position of the anode
and deflector plates are controlled by a motor and the pyroelectric crystal is
mounted on a peltier junction.

6 Ferroelectric field generation

We can separately test the field generating crystal by using an external elec-
tron beam to probe the field near the surface. Fig. 6 shows the apparatus
we plan to use where an electron beam of low energy ( ∼ 2kV ) is propagated
perpendicularly to the field generator crystal.

6.1 Experimental testing

In order to experimentally test if small T GS crystals could be used as a field
generator a proposed setup is use an emitting cathode and in vacuum let

17
a beam pass by a small T GS crystal parallel to the charged surface. The
electron will then be accelerated by the crystal orthogonal to the charged
surface. The anode is for controlling the separation distance and angle in
which the electrons are deflected by the deflecting plates can be used to
determine the kinetic energy of the electrons. field strength of the crystal.
The deflection angle is measured with plastic schintillator and a camera.
Both the anode and the deflector is mounted on a motor in order to adjust
for the beam trajectory.

6.2 Simulation

(a) (b)

Figure 7: (a) The figure shows a simulation of electron beam deflection by a

ferroelectric crystal. (b) The electric field Ex due to the ferroelectric crystal
at the center x-axis which is orthogonal to the charged crystal surface.

We performed simulations to study the correlation between the angle of

the electron beam and the field strength of the crystal. Fig. 7 is a simula-
tion in Oopec assuming that the ferroelectric can be simplified as a positively
and a negatively charged surface when the electrically charged surfaces. This
assumption is valid in perfect vacuum and with no conducting boundaries.
This is of course a simplification when looking at 1, so we can not regard the
charge that the actual screen charges, but since we are just interested in the
electric field strength this does not matter
Fig. 7 (a) is a simulation of a electron beam passing a TGS crystal with
surface area ∼ 0.5mm × 0.05mm and thickness ∼ 1mm when the temper-

18
ature change is ∆T = 10K 4 . Fig. 7 (b) shows the Ex field of the ferroelectric.

4
In this case the pyroelectric has been simplified as two surfaces with a surface charge
of ±γ∆T

19
7 Conclusion
We have begun an investigation of pyroelectric electron emission and field
generation. A test stand has been fabricated and various subcomponent
have been build. We have an initial theoretical and numerical model of hour
geometry . IN the coming month we intend to refine our models and begin
measurements on the crystal emitters and field generators.

20
References
[1] Electron emission from ferroelectrics
G. Rosenman, D. Shur, Ya. E. Krasik and A. Dunaevsky Journal of
applied physics 88, 2000

[2] Laser-powered dielectric structure as a micron-scale electron source

R. B. Yoder, G. Travish, J. B Rosenzweig

[3] Electron and positive ion acceleration with pyroelectric crystals

Jeffrey A. Geuther and Yaron Danon Journal of applied physics 97, 2005

[4] Electron and Positive Ion Beams and X-rays Produces by Heated and
Cooled Pyroelectric Crystals such as LiN bO3 and LiT aO3 in Dilute
Gases: Phenomenology and Applications James D. Brownridge and
Stephen M Shafroth ? From internet

[5] http://www.cathode.com/pdf/TB-211.pdf

[6] Pyroelectric electron emission from -Z face polar surface of lithium nio-
bate monodomain single crystal
El Mostafa Bourim, Chang-Wook Moon, Seung-Woon Lee, Vadim
Sidorki, In Kyeong Yoo
J Electroceran, 2006

[7] Kinetics of Electron Emission from the TGS Ferroelectric Crystal

A. A. Sidorkin, S. D. Milovidova, O. V. Rogazinskaya, and A. S.
Sidorkin,
Physics of the Solid State, Vol. 42, 2000

[8] Pulsed photoelectric field emission from needle cathodes

C. Hernandez Garcia and C. A. Brau

[9] Advanced photocathode simulation and theory

K.L Jensen, D.W. Feldman, P.G. O’Shea

[10] http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel2/3931/11380/00522500.pdf?arnumber=522500

[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyroelectricity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferroelectric

21
[12] The Micro Accelerator Platform
Gil Travish Particle Beam Physics Laboratory. UCLA Department of
Physics May 2007 unpublished

[13] Laser-Driven Dielectric-Structure Accelerators

Eric R. Colby

22