Stabilization of cold-field-emission current from a CeB6 single-crystal emitter by using a faceted (100) plane

A cerium hexaboride (CeB6) single crystal grown by the floating-zone method has a low work function of about 2.6 eV, and along with lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6), it is one of the most popular cathode materials. It has been widely used as the thermionic emitter of electron microscopes, such as SEMs and TEMs. However, cold-field emitters (CFEs) based on CeB6 and LaB6 have not been put to practical use due to their insufficient emission stability compared to that of conventional tungsten (W)-CFEs. In consideration of that background, in the present study, the stability of the emission current from a CeB6 single-crystal CFE was improved by using the (100) plane at the faceted tip of the single crystal. The CeB6⟨100⟩ single crystal was processed by electrochemical etching and successive high-temperature field evaporation and faceting under an appropriate electric field to make a (100) plane at the apex of the crystal. The improved CeB6(100)-CFE emitted a monochromatic electron beam, which has about three-quarters of the energy width of that of W(310)-CFEs. Emission current from the (100) plane maintained low emission noise, and emission decay in the electron-gun chamber of the SEM was suppressed. The resulting current noise is low enough to produce SEM images without image deterioration, and the relatively small decay makes it possible to use the CeB6(100) emitter for one flashing process per day.