Metal Microscope and Dewar System for Field Emission Studies

Abstract

The research space of an experimental model of a metal Dewar system was adapted for field emission microscopy. The contamination time of a tungsten field emission cathode was used to estimate the residual gas pressure in the research space when the Dewar was filled with liquid helium with an upper limit for condensable gases of 10⁻¹³ Torr. Field emission patterns were obtained for niobium and niobium‐zirconium (25%) alloy as examples of the application of the system to field emission microscopy.