title: Fast pulsed operation of a small non-radioactive electron source with continuous emission current control.
abstract: Non-radioactive electron sources are of great interest in any application requiring the emission of electrons at atmospheric pressure, as they offer better control over emission parameters than radioactive electron sources and are not subject to legal restrictions. Recently, we published a simple electron source consisting only of a vacuum housing, a filament, and a single control grid. In this paper, we present improved control electronics that utilize this control grid in order to focus and defocus the electron beam, thus pulsing the electron emission at atmospheric pressure. This allows short emission pulses and excellent stability of the emitted electron current due to continuous control, both during pulsed and continuous operations. As an application example, this electron source is coupled to an ion mobility spectrometer. Here, the pulsed electron source allows experiments on gas phase ion chemistry (e.g., ion generation and recombination kinetics) and can even remove the need for a traditional ion shutter.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sensors and Measurement Technology, Institute of Electrical Engineering and Measurement Technology, Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cochems
authors.affiliation: Department of Sensors and Measurement Technology, Institute of Electrical Engineering and Measurement Technology, Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Kirk
authors.affiliation: Department of Sensors and Measurement Technology, Institute of Electrical Engineering and Measurement Technology, Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bunert
authors.affiliation: Department of Sensors and Measurement Technology, Institute of Electrical Engineering and Measurement Technology, Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Runge
authors.affiliation: Department of Sensors and Measurement Technology, Institute of Electrical Engineering and Measurement Technology, Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Goncalves
authors.affiliation: Department of Sensors and Measurement Technology, Institute of Electrical Engineering and Measurement Technology, Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zimmermann