X-ray generating mechanism using electron field emission cathode
AssigneeUniversity of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
InventorsOtto Z. Zhou, Jianping Lu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An x-ray generating device includes a field emission cathode formed at least partially from a nanostructure-containing material having an emitted electron current density of at least 4 A/cm2. High energy conversion efficiency and compact design are achieved due to easy focusing of cold cathode emitted electrons and dramatic reduction of heating at the anode. In addition, by pulsing the field between the cathode and the gate or anode and focusing the electron beams at different anode materials, pulsed x-ray radiation with varying energy can be generated from a single device.
Claims31
An x-ray generating device comprising:
- a chamber;
- a field emission cathode, the cathode comprising a nanostructure-containing material comprising carbon nanotubes having an emitted electron current density of more than 4 A/cm2 and as great as 10 A/cm2;
- an anode target;
- and
- an accelerating field established by an applied potential between the cathode and anode.
A method for producing x-rays comprising:
- providing a chamber;
- introducing a field emission cathode into the chamber, the cathode comprising a nanostructure-containing material comprising carbon nanotubes having an emitted electron current density of more than 4 A/cm2 and as great as 10 A/cm2;
- applying a control voltage to the cathode thereby causing a stream of electrons to be emitted;
- and
- providing an anode target within the chamber incident to the stream of emitted electrons thereby causing x-rays to be emitted from the anode target.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.