Synchronization in Arrays of Vacuum Microdiodes

Simulations have shown that space-charge effects can lead to regular modulation of photoemitted beams in vacuum diodes with gap sizes on the order of 1 μm and accelerating voltage on the order of 1 V. These modulations are in the terahertz regime and can be tuned by simply changing the emitter area...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE transactions on electron devices Vol. 62; no. 1; pp. 200 - 206
Main Authors Ilkov, Marjan, Torfason, Kristinn, Manolescu, Andrei, Valfells, Agust
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York IEEE 01.01.2015
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects
Cathodes
Couplings
Frequency synchronization
Oscillators
Quantum cascade lasers
Space charge
Synchronization
terahertz
vacuum microelectronics
Synchronization
vacuum microelectronics
terahertz
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Summary:Simulations have shown that space-charge effects can lead to regular modulation of photoemitted beams in vacuum diodes with gap sizes on the order of 1 μm and accelerating voltage on the order of 1 V. These modulations are in the terahertz regime and can be tuned by simply changing the emitter area or accelerating vacuum field. The average current in the diode corresponds to the Child-Langmuir current, but the amplitude of the oscillations is affected by various factors. Given the small size and voltage of the system, the maximum radiated ac power is expected to be small. In this paper, we show that an array of small emitters produces higher frequency signals than a single large emitter of the same area and how these emitters may be synchronized to produce higher power signals.
ISSN:0018-9383
1557-9646
DOI:10.1109/TED.2014.2370680