Miniature Electrostatic, High-Vacuum Ion Pump Architecture Using A Nanostructured Field Emission Electron Source

15th International Conference on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications

物理学;能源学

Basu, A.^1 ; Perez, M.A.^2 ; Velásquez-García, L.F.^1

Microsystems Technology Laboratories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

MA

02139, United States^1

ColdQuanta, Inc., 3030 Sterling Circle, Boulder

CO

80301, United States^2

关键词: Cold atom interferometry;    Electron collectors;    Field emission electron sources;    Field emitter arrays;    Ionization probabilities;    Negatively charged;    Pump characteristics;    Reduced order models;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/660/1/012027/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/660/1/012027

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

We report a field emission-based, electrostatic ion pump architecture for generation of high vacuum within a small chamber that is compatible with miniaturized cold-atom interferometry systems. The design increases the ionization probability using a helical electron collector. To create vacuum, electrons from a nanostructured field emitter array impact-ionize the gas molecules within the chamber; then, the ions generated are gettered by a negatively charged annular-shaped titanium ion collector. A proof-of-concept pump prototype was developed and characterized using a 200 cm3stainless steel vacuum chamber. The pressure inside the chamber was observed to decrease from 7.8×10-7Torr to 7.2×10-7Torr as the bias voltage on the ion collector was varied from -100 V to -1000 V while the emission current was kept constant at approximately 3.2 μA. The functional form of the experimental pump characteristics is in agreement with a proposed reduced-order model.