The present application is based on International Application No. PCT/EP2005/056701, filed on Dec. 12, 2005, which in turn corresponds to French Application No. 04 13340 filed on Dec. 15, 2004 and priority is hereby claimed under 35 USC §119 based on these applications. Each of these applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety into the present application.
The field of application is that of field-emission cathodes which can be used in vacuum tubes, in particular for microwave amplification, with a view for example to applications in telecommunications. It relates notably to tubes with direct modulation of the emission, such as triodes or tubes with inductive output.
Currently, the electron sources of microwave amplifier tubes are thermionic. But sources functioning on the principle of field emissions (cold cathodes) are being studied for their potentially better performance (modulation of the emission at higher frequency, immediate starting of the cathode without heating delay, compactness of the tubes, etc.). The majority of these cathodes are made up of a conducting plane surface provided with relief structures, that are also conducting and onto which the electric field is concentrated. These relief structures are electron emitters when the field at their apex is sufficiently high. These cathodes are thus purely electrically controlled: in triodes, for example, which comprise three successive electrodes, the cathode, the grid and the anode, the electrical voltage applied between the cathode and the grid is modulated in order to modulate the electron current emitted by field emission from the cathode
Several limitations result from this electrical control of the emission:
In order to solve these various problems, the invention proposes that the electrical modulation control be replaced by an optical control.
The present invention thus provides a cathode associating, in a generic manner, at least one emitter of electrons by field emission with a photoelectric (whose electrical properties may be modified by light) element (device or material), notably a photoconducting element (whose electrical conducting properties may be modified by light), in such a manner that this makes it possible to control the emission of the electrons using an optical source.
More precisely, a subject of the invention is an optically-controlled field-emission cathode, comprising a substrate having at least one conducting surface and at least one conducting emitter element in the vicinity of a conducting surface, characterized in that it also comprises at least one photoconducting element electrically connected in series between at least one emitter element and a conducting surface of the substrate.
Advantageously, the emitter element or elements, the photoconducting element or elements and the conducting surface or surfaces of the substrate are layered in this order within an integrated structure on the substrate.
According to one variant of the invention, the emitters can be of substantially conical or pyramidal shape with a base smaller than or equal to the height, made of semiconductor or metal.
Advantageously, the emitters can be of nanowire or nanofiber or nanotube type with a height greater than the diameter, made of carbon or of boron nitride or of metal.
The photoconducting elements can have conducting layers on their upper face.
According to one variant of the invention, the conducting layer or layers on the upper face of the photoconducting elements can be divided up into regions that are isolated from one another, each region is associated with an emitter, and the lateral dimensions of each region are smaller than, or of a similar size to, the height of the emitter.
According to one variant of the invention, the photoconducting element can be a photoresistor that can also operate as a photosource of current.
According to one variant of the invention, the photoconducting element can be a photodiode of PIN type, P being representative of a layer of p+-doped semiconductor material, I being representative of a layer of undoped, or very lightly doped, semiconductor material, and N being representative of a layer of n+-doped semiconductor material, or of MIN type, M being representative of a layer with metallic conduction, the layers P or M being in electrical contact with a conducting surface of the substrate in such a manner that the photodiode is reverse-biased during normal operation of the cathode.
The substrate can have conducting surfaces made of metal or transparent conductor or highly-doped semiconductor, or may itself be entirely formed from these materials.
According to one advantageous variant, the photoconducting element can be a semiconductor material I, very lightly doped or undoped in its central part and with heavy n or p doping at its ends (and, if required, a metallic layer at its upper end) so as to provide a good ohmic contact with the conductors to which it is connected as is known in the prior art, and operating, as will be explained later, in carrier mobility mode, corresponding to an optically controlled resistor.
According to one variant, the photoconducting element can also be an arrangement similar to the previous one with dimensions that allow it to operate in carrier speed saturation mode and therefore corresponding to an optically-controlled current source.
According to another variant, the photoconducting element can be of the PIN, MIN or MIP diode type being reverse-biased when the cathode is in operation and thus operating as a photodiode in a known manner (here, M denotes a metal, a compound of conducting oxides, etc.).
According to one advantageous variant, the upper conducting layer of the photoconducting element is laterally bounded in order to define individual photoconducting regions and to associate one of them with each group of emitters.
According to one advantageous variant, each photoconducting region is only associated with one emitter.
According to one advantageous variant, the upper conducting layers of the photoconductor have lateral dimensions in the range between the diameter and the height of each emitter in such a manner that variations in illumination of the photoconductor modify efficiently the configuration of the near electric field and hence the current emitted by the emitter as is explained hereinbelow.
According to one variant of the three preceding ones, the layer of photoconducting material can also be laterally bounded over the whole or over a part of its thickness.
Generally speaking, the modulation of the concentration of the carriers must follow the optical signal up to the maximum frequency targeted. The disappearance of the carriers in the photoconductors when they have injecting ohmic contacts (NIN, PIP, forward-biased PIN, etc.) occurs by recombination.
In order to limit the lifetime of the carriers, the following materials and configurations may notably advantageously be used:
Low-temperature III-V materials is understood to mean, as is known, materials whose growth is carried out at an unusually low temperature in such a manner that an excess of V element is produced within them which, by segregating, form particularly efficient recombination regions.
Another subject of the invention is an optically-controlled amplifier tube comprising an anode and a cathode, said cathode according to the invention comprising a field-emission electron emitter configured in series with a photoconductor
According to one variant of the invention, the amplifier tube can advantageously comprise an intermediate grid, in addition to the anode and the cathode. According to another variant, the amplifier tube can, in addition to the cathode according to the invention, comprise a grid and a solenoid placed at the electron emission output after the grid. The role of the solenoid is to effect the transfer of energy from the electron packets emitted to the electromagnetic field wave which is created there, as is known in progressive-wave tubes
The invention will be better understood and other advantages will become apparent upon reading the description that follows presented by way of nonlimiting examples and with reference to the appended figures, amongst which:
a shows schematically a cathode according to the invention comprising an emitter using field emission, placed near to a conducting substrate to which the emitter is electrically connected via a photoconducting element.
b shows schematically a configuration with vertical stacking of the same elements, with an electrical connection on the front face of the cathode.
c shows schematically a version in which the photoconducting device comprises a conducting layer on its upper face. The control of the lateral extension of this conducting layer is particularly important.
a and 4b illustrate a cathode comprising an emitter on a substrate having a conducting surface of much greater dimensions than the height of the emitter, and the equipotential surfaces when the assembly is facing a positive anode.
a illustrates a cathode comprising an emitter on a resistor (having a conducting layer on its upper face) which in turn is on the conducting surface of a substrate, the resistor and its upper conducting layer having a surface area of about the size and height of the emitter, and FIG. 5b illustrates the equipotential surfaces when the assembly is facing a positive anode.
a illustrates a first variant of the invention whose photoconducting element (with its upper conducting layer) is mounted onto a transparent substrate whose surface is covered with a transparent conductor. This allows the cathode to be illuminated on its back face.
b illustrates, in an identical variant to that illustrated in
The following description is given in the advantageous case of an emitter associated with a current saturator device. However, the invention can very well be applied to variants in which several emitters are associated with the same saturator device.
Generally speaking, the cathode of the invention operates according to the schematic diagram in
Thanks to an optical source SO, a photoconducting element P receives radiation which allows its electrical conducting properties to be varied. Since this photoconducting element is connected in series with an electron-emitting element Ee, the photosensitive element allows the emitted current to be regulated by the cathode assembly when it is bathed in an electric field.
According to the invention, the cathode comprises at least one emitter element such as those described hereinafter:
These are conducting objects of micrometric and nanometric size, having a high ratio between the dimensions of their apex and their height. They owe their field emission properties to the amplification of the electric field existing at their apex because of their shape (example in
Thus, according to the invention, the emitter or group of emitters, such as have just been described, are connected in series to a photoconducting device Dp as illustrated in
In the diagram in
It can be particularly advantageous to use a photoconducting element with its upper conducting layer of dimensions similar to or less than the height of the emitter point.
Indeed, in this case, the configuration of field lines and the equipotential surfaces near the emitter is changed so that the electric field at the apex of the emitter is very substantially modified, as explained hereinbelow.
For a better understanding of these cases, the electric field amplification mechanism and the effect of a series resistor on the emission of an emitter should be examined. Reference can be made to
At a distance from the emitter, the equipotentials are regularly spaced. Above the emitter, they are compressed, representing an amplification β of the electric field E=β*E0, associated with the accumulation of charges at the apex. The amplification factor of the field is given by
a and 5b illustrate the case of a point on the surface of a localized conducting substrate of dimensions similar to that of the point. More precisely,
It can be shown that
where α is a coefficient dependent on the lateral extension of the series resistor.
The situation is therefore as if the height of the nanotube h, the coefficient of amplification β and the field at the apex E=βE0 had undergone a relative variation
compared with a situation without series resistor.
The emitted current which follows an essentially exponential law with the field E at the apex of the emitter:
is very effectively decreased by the reduction in E.
For example, with E0=30 V/μm, a decrease in effective β of
β=230 to β=200 (dβ/β=15%) causes a reduction in the emitted current I of one order of magnitude.
It can be pointed out that this effect is very significant for a limited lateral extension of the resistor: for a resistor diameter equal to the height of the emitter, then α=0.88. If the extension of the upper metallization of the resistor is much larger than the height of the emitter, the effect disappears, α˜0. In this situation, it is no longer β that is modified, but E0, the average field. In this case, the relative variation of the field at the apex of the emitter is
where d is the distance from the cathode to the upper electrode. The ratio of the dE/E between the two situations (smaller or larger extension of the upper metallization of the resistor) is then
It will be noted that the invention is particularly advantageous when d is greater than H (height of the emitters).
This is why, if it is desired to control the emitted current, it proves to be particularly advantageous to couple the point with a resistive element of small lateral extension.
In the present invention, the photoconducting element provides this function and, moreover, in a manner modulated by the illumination.
When the photoconducting element is a photoresistor, the modulation of illumination over time modulates the value of the resistance and thus the current emitted. This effect occurs as described hereinabove by means of the relative modulation of the effective height of the nanocylinders, the effective coefficient of amplification and the effective field at the apex,
When the photoconductor works as a current source controlled by light, it is the object of a voltage drop ΔV which replaces RI in the above formula, and the result is the same:
In this last case, the photoconductor then imposes its current on the emitter, allowing a control of the emitted current that is linear with the optical power.
Generally speaking, a photoconductor therefore offers a means of modulating with light the current emitted by the cathode.
Within the scope of the invention, the photoresistors and the PIN photodiodes can be substituted by gain devices, that are known, such as avalanche photodiodes or phototransistors.
According to a first exemplary embodiment of the invention, a photosensitive resistor is used, and its illumination is modulated. Such a resistor is for example formed by the stacking of layers illustrated in
Such a resistor can also be formed for example by the stacking of layers illustrated in
For example, under the emitter and starting from the latter, the sequence can be TiN/phosphorus-doped silicon 1019 cm−3/unintentionally-doped silicon/phosphorus-doped silicon 1019 cm−3/ITO on a quartz substrate precoated with conducting surfaces.
The whole assembly is subjected on the rear or front face to radiation in a spectrum of wavelengths at which silicon is absorbing, typically at wavelengths of around 0.5 μm. All the layers are, in this example, laterally bounded (diameters or sides advantageously smaller than the height of the emitter point). This assembly forms the cathode.
According to a second exemplary embodiment illustrated in
For such a configuration, the couple InP/GaInAs is particularly well adapted to an excitation at 1.55 μm.
More precisely, on a substrate 20 of the n-doped InP type that is transparent to the excitation wavelength, in this case to 1.55 microns, a first conducting contact is formed on the face denoted as rear face 21.
On the face referred to as the front face, on the emitter side, the photoresistor is formed by epitaxy comprising a layer 22 of n-doped Ga0.48In0.52As, covered with a layer 23 of intrinsic, or very lightly doped, Ga0.48In052As itself covered with a layer 24 of p-doped Ga0.48In0.52As, the whole stack being covered with a second metallic layer 25 on which is located the field-effect emitter or micropoint 26. The doped layers are thin (a few tens of nm) particularly the bottom one, so as not to absorb uselessly the optical power that must modulate the resistance of the I region. This layer can have a typical thickness of a few hundreds of nm to a few μm.
This photoresistor is a forward-biased diode, in contact on its lower side with a reference potential V-, its upper contact being at a higher potential V+, by the application of a higher voltage to the electrode facing the cathode in such a manner that electrons and holes can be injected into the region of intrinsic or lightly doped material. Thus, it is not the contacts that dominate the impedance of the diode, but the resistance of the I region which can be modulated by light.
In the same way as for this example in
When the thickness of the layer of intrinsic material, which is the seat of the carrier modulation, is sufficiently large with respect to the voltage to which it is subjected, the resistance of this layer can be adjusted. This is no longer the case when the photosensitive material is subjected to a field higher than a few 103 to 104 V/cm; it no longer operates in mobility mode, but in carrier speed saturation mode. In this case, it is no longer the resistance that is modulated, but it operates in illumination-controlled current source mode. The emitted current adjusts itself to the value of the current source which plays the role of setpoint. This situation can be advantageous compared to the previous one.
Thus, the resistor connected in series with the current emitter can typically be a forward-biased PIN diode or an NIN sequence, composed of a stack of semiconductor layers with an intermediate layer, in which charge carriers can be photogenerated allowing its resistance to be varied.
According to the prior art, the device typically operates in electron carrier mobility mode as long as the assembly is not subjected to too high a voltage.
This phenomenon is notably described in the publications by C. Jacoboni, C. Canali, G. Ottaviani, and A. A. Quaranta, “A review of some charge transport properties of silicon”, Solid State Electron., 20, 77 (1977) and by P. Smith, M. Inoue, and J. Frey, “Electron velocity in Si and GaAs at very high electric fields”, Appl. Phys. Lett., 37, 797 (1980).
Indeed, the current density is given by J=nev where n is the carrier concentration, e the electronic charge and v the carrier speed. For weak electric fields, the carrier speed is proportional to the field, expressed as v=μE, where E is the electric field and μ the mobility. The device is in mobility mode (Ohm's law). For higher electric fields, a saturation of the carrier speed is observed and, in this case, J=Jsat=nevsat. Thus, the current density no longer depends on the applied field, and the emitted current varies linearly with the illumination of the structure.
For silicon, it can be seen in
Instead of the photoconductor hereinabove a reverse-biased PIN photodiode may also be used (
The lower contact layer 31 (formed on the surface of a transparent substrate 30) is at a potential V−, not shown, whereas the upper contact layer 35 is at a potential V+, not shown, on either side of diode-type structure, and the stacking of the layers 32/33/34 is as illustrated in
In this case, a current emitted by the point 36 may be envisioned of 1 A emitted/W of optical power, or thereabouts, for semiconductors whose gap is close to 1 eV (silicon, GaAs, GaInAs . . . ). The formation is in every way similar to the cathodes using photoresistors. It suffices to replace the lower n+-doped layer with a p+-doped one (PIN structure).
It is also possible to form a structure of MIN type as illustrated in
According to this configuration, in the absence of illumination, no current flows. In the presence of illumination, a maximum of one electron transits per incident photon: this is not a gain structure as the photoresistor can be.
One variant of MIN structure is illustrated in
The structure of MIN type hereinabove may be improved by displacing the layer 61, as illustrated in
These reverse-biased PIN or MIN structures offer the advantage of avoiding the purely electrical injection of a carrier space charge from the electrodes which may occur in certain cases in photoresistors.
They offer another advantage: the use of means for limiting the lifetime of the carriers can be avoided (the disappearance of the carriers can happen by transit toward the electrodes). The drawback is the absence of photoconduction gain (control optical power could be higher).
The upper conducting layer of the photoconducting element (overdoped and or metallic layer), as is illustrated in
The semiconductor layers N, I and P may also be laterally bounded, over their entire thickness or only over a part.
A particularly advantageous situation is that in
The purpose of the narrow part of the I layer is to form a high impedance in the absence of illumination, and the wider, or even unbounded, part of this same I layer has reasonably large dimensions, compatible under illumination with a good coupling of the light, hence a high absorption, and therefore an efficient creation of carriers. The photogenerated carriers quickly diffuse into the upper narrow part of the I layer to provide conduction in this region.
The photosensitive semiconductor can be disposed in a vertical configuration with its upper and lower contacts, or in a planar arrangement, characterized in that these two contacts have no point on the same perpendicular to the substrate. This configuration can facilitate the illumination of the photosensitive semiconductor and avoid the need to resort to transparent conductors that have a lower conductivity.
The photosensitive semiconductor can be portions of the substrate itself, if this is a semiconductor.
Hereinafter, various means of coupling light with the photosensitive element will be described:
The photosensitive elements can be portions of the substrate itself or layers of materials deposited onto the substrate, on the same side as the emitters or on the other side.
The photosensitive elements may be illuminated directly or through the substrate if this is transparent to the exciting wavelength.
The light can be channeled by guided propagation in fibers, or in guides integrated into the substrate, or via spatial propagation, in uniform illumination mode or focused onto the photosensitive elements themselves, by means of microlens arrays for example, which can be integrated into the rest of the structure. Lastly, antireflective layers can be used, at the input of the light into the structure, together with Bragg reflectors in order to maximize the interaction of the light with the photoconducting layer.
All the variants of cathode according to the invention that have been described may be incorporated into amplifier tubes.
The operation is as follows. The optical wave that carries the input signal modulates the emitted current as described hereinabove. The electron packets accelerated by the DC field excite a microwave electric field within the cavity. The microwave power comes from the power supplied by the DC generator which also serves as a bias supply for the emission of the electrons.
The operation of the amplifier device may also be seen as that of an oscillator whose oscillation amplitude is controlled by a photosensitive device controlled by light. This type of amplifier is completely novel.
This tube can offer the advantage of being relatively wideband, not necessarily requiring a cavity.
It comprises an optically-controlled cathode, of one of the types described hereinabove, associated with a grid. The emission of the electrons is modulated by this assembly. The electron packets are then accelerated and transfer their energy to the microwave field which is created within the solenoid. This transfer is wideband. Thanks to the optical control, the modulation of the emission is also wideband, not requiring a cavity. This device additionally offers the advantage that, thanks to the nonlinear nature of the emission by field emission, the emitted electrons can be grouped into packets that are relatively monokinetic, a fact which favors the recovery of energy in the collector.
Generally speaking, the present invention offers the following advantages:
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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04 13340 | Dec 2004 | FR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/EP2005/056701 | 12/12/2005 | WO | 00 | 6/15/2007 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2006/063982 | 6/22/2006 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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