Effect of anode emission of electrons on space-charge theory of the plasma thermionic converter

Abstract

The space-charge potential theory in low-pressure thermionic converters is extended to cover emission of electrons at the anode as well as both ion and electron production at the cathode. The contribution of each of these three sources to the charge density is expressed as a function of potential for the ten most important cases. The first integrations of Poisson's equation are given for each of the cases. Previous analytical work by P. L. Auer and by the author reporting first integrations of Polsson's equation without anode emission appears as a special case in this paper. In addition, in each of the ten first-order differential equations there appears a term giving the contribution of anode emission. As before, analytical solution of the first-order differential equations is impossible. For illustrative purposes numerical solutions have been obtained on the IBM 704 computer. Comparison with previous numerical solutions reported by the-author show the effect of anode emission on the space-charge potential in the diode. Also shown in figures is the effect of the variation of parameters for certain selected cases.