9361179 Beetz The development of cold electron emitter technology has the potential for broadly impacting the rapidly growing area of electron spectroscopy. Commercially available instrumentation such as Auger spectrometers typically employ thermionic electron sources which restrict their scope of use through filament heating effects and thermal cracking of gases on filaments. These instruments are also not capable of performing time resolved phenomena on the sub second level. The development of a robust cold emitter capable of high frequency pulsed operation would not only solve these problems but more importantly, it would enable revolutionary new development in the construction of extremely high speed, high sensitivity electron spectroscopic instrumentation employing Fas Fourier Transform (FFT) time of flight measurement techniques. In Phase I, Advanced Technology Materials, Inc (ATM) will determine the feasibility of fabricating a cold cathode electron source using a novel diamond junction base emitter. The cold cathode source will be evaluated and in Phase II be employed in the construction of a prototype FFT Auger spectrometer. In Phase III commercial production of cold cathode electron beam guns is anticipated for use in a variety of electron spectroscopy and UHV instrumentation applications. ***
