Modeling of Space-Charge Effects in 3D Thermionic Devices

P. Zilio [1], W. Raja [2], A. Alabastri [3], R. Proietti Zaccaria [2]
[1] Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy
[2] Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy
[3] Rice University, USA
Published in 2015

The formation of space charge clouds is a well known problem that affects thermionic emitters in regimes of high current emission. Although some analytical models have been presented, suitable for 1D geometries, the modeling of the problem in complex 3D structures remains a challenge due to the mutual coupling between electron trajectories and field they produce. Here we propose a model able to simulate space charge limited emission in 3D with COMSOL.

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