Direct evidence of low work function on SrVO3 cathode using thermionic electron emission microscopy and high-field ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy

Perovskite SrVO3 has recently been proposed as a novel electron emission cathode material. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest multiple low work function surfaces, and recent experimental efforts have consistently demonstrated effective work functions of ∼2.7 eV for polycrystalline samples, both results suggesting, but not directly confirming, that some fraction of even lower work function surface is present. In this work, thermionic electron emission microscopy (ThEEM) and high-field ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) are used to study the local work function distribution and measure the work function of a partially oriented- (110)-SrVO3 perovskite oxide cathode surface. Our results show direct evidence of low work function patches of about 2.0 eV on the cathode surface, with a corresponding onset of observable thermionic emission at 750 °C. We hypothesize that, in our ThEEM and UPS experiments, the high applied electric field suppresses the patch field effect, enabling the direct measurement of local work functions. This measured work function of 2.0 eV is comparable to the previous DFT-calculated work function values of the SrVO-terminated (110) SrVO3 surface (2.3 eV) and SrO-terminated (100) surface (1.9 eV). The measured 2.0 eV value is also much lower than the work function for the (001) LaB6 single crystal cathode (∼2.7 eV) and comparable to the effective work function of B-type dispenser cathodes (∼2.1 eV). If SrVO3 thermionic emitters can be engineered to access domains of this low 2.0 eV work function, they have the potential to significantly improve thermionic emitter-based technologies.