What is it about?
Conventional electron emitting devices have operated only in a vacuum. This paper describes a novel electron emission device that can operate in the atmosphere. The electrons emitted from our device into the atmosphere generate various ions and radicals by interacting with atmospheric components. The ions and radicals have interesting features that are completely different from those generated by conventional discharges, beta rays and the like.
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Why is it important?
The electron energy emitted from our devices is orders of magnitude lower, several eV, compared to other methods such as discharge and beta rays. And the concentration of emitted electrons is very high, a few micro A / cm2, which is orders of magnitude greater than photoemission. Since high-concentration and low-energy electrons interact with gas molecules at atmospheric pressure, unprecedented soft ionization and radical generation are possible.
Perspectives
The soft ionization and radical generation by our device have the potential to make significant contributions in fields such as mass spectrometry and biology.
Tadashi Iwamatsu
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Atmospheric operation of original electron emission device and generation of reactive species, Applied Physics Letters, February 2019, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/1.5077062.
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