Electrostatic deflection

Last updated
The CRT in this Tektronix vectorscope uses electrostatic deflection, which only allows for small angles and requires a very deep tube. Tektronix 1720 vectorscope.jpg
The CRT in this Tektronix vectorscope uses electrostatic deflection, which only allows for small angles and requires a very deep tube.

In electromagnetism, electrostatic deflection refers to a way of modifying the path of a beam of charged particles by the use of an electric field applied transverse to the path of the particles. The technique is called electrostatic because the strength and direction of the applied field changes slowly relative to the time it takes for the particles to transit the field, and thus can be considered not to change (be static) for any single particle.

Contents

Explanation

The Lorentz force acts on any charged particle in an electrostatic deflection. Electrostatic deflection uses a special, simplified case of this general effect by limiting the field to an electric field. An electric field applies a force on a particle that is proportional to the strength of the field and to the charge on the particle. The direction of the applied force is the same as the direction of the electric field for positive charges and opposite for negative charges. For electrostatic deflection, the applied electric field is arranged so that it lies in the plane perpendicular to the initial direction of the stream. The particles are accelerated by this force in proportion to the charge of the particles. The path the particles follow depends on their sideways acceleration and their velocity when they enter the deflecting field. Therefore, it is important for good control of the direction that the particles in the stream have a uniform charge-to-mass ratio and that they move at a uniform speed.

Uses

The most common use for this technique is controlling the path of a stream of electrons in a vacuum. One application is in small cathode-ray tubes for oscilloscopes. In these tubes the electric field is created by two sets of paired electrodes, mounted at right angles, that the electron stream flows between. This arrangement allows independent deflection of the beam in two dimensions (usually perceived as up/down (vertical) and right/left (horizontal)). The electrodes are commonly called deflection plates. Traditionally, the electrons pass through the vertical deflection plates first, yielding slightly higher sensitivity because of the longer travel time from the vertical deflection plates to the phosphor screen as compared to the horizontal deflection plates. [1] In very high speed oscilloscopes, the deflection plates were often complex structures, combining a series of sub-plates with an electrical delay line. By matching the propagation speed of the electrical signal with the transit speed of the electrons, maximum bandwidth (frequency response) was achieved.

The technique works well whenever a sufficiently uniform stream can be created, as discussed above. Therefore, it has been used in controlling macroscopic particle streams, for instance in fluorescence-activated cell sorting, as well. Another application was in one type of inkjet printer.

Electrostatic deflection is very useful for small deflection angles but is well known to be inferior to magnetic deflection for deflecting a charged particle beam into large angles - say over 10 degrees. The reason is that deflection aberrations become large as the deflection angle increases. This reduces the ability to finely focus the beam. Also in electrostatic deflection it has long been the practice to inject the beam midway between the charged deflection plates so as to avoid the fringe fields as much as possible. However it was found by computation methods that deflection aberrations would be significantly reduced if the beam were injected offset toward the attracting plate. That way the beam tends to follow equipotentials and the deflection force is normal to the beam direction. Thus offset, all the electrons in the beam are deflected into the same angle. There is an induced astigmatism that is correctable. This deflection idea has been tested and verified. Deflection angles of 50 degrees are reportedly possible without measurable deflection aberration. Optimal injection offset is approximately 1/3 of the plate gap toward the deflecting plate. The useful beam diameter is also approximately 1/3 of the gap. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathode-ray tube</span> Vacuum tube often used to display images

A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms on an oscilloscope, a frame of video on an analog television set (TV), digital raster graphics on a computer monitor, or other phenomena like radar targets. A CRT in a TV is commonly called a picture tube. CRTs have also been used as memory devices, in which case the screen is not intended to be visible to an observer. The term cathode ray was used to describe electron beams when they were first discovered, before it was understood that what was emitted from the cathode was a beam of electrons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric current</span> Flow of electric charge

An electric current is a flow of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is defined as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface. The moving particles are called charge carriers, which may be one of several types of particles, depending on the conductor. In electric circuits the charge carriers are often electrons moving through a wire. In semiconductors they can be electrons or holes. In an electrolyte the charge carriers are ions, while in plasma, an ionized gas, they are ions and electrons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathode ray</span> Beam of electrons observed in vacuum tubes

Cathode rays or electron beams (e-beam) are streams of electrons observed in discharge tubes. If an evacuated glass tube is equipped with two electrodes and a voltage is applied, glass behind the positive electrode is observed to glow, due to electrons emitted from the cathode. They were first observed in 1859 by German physicist Julius Plücker and Johann Wilhelm Hittorf, and were named in 1876 by Eugen Goldstein Kathodenstrahlen, or cathode rays. In 1897, British physicist J. J. Thomson showed that cathode rays were composed of a previously unknown negatively charged particle, which was later named the electron. Cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) use a focused beam of electrons deflected by electric or magnetic fields to render an image on a screen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. J. Thomson</span> British physicist (1856–1940)

Sir Joseph John Thomson was a British physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics, credited with the discovery of the electron, the first subatomic particle to be found.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linear particle accelerator</span> Type of particle accelerator

A linear particle accelerator is a type of particle accelerator that accelerates charged subatomic particles or ions to a high speed by subjecting them to a series of oscillating electric potentials along a linear beamline. The principles for such machines were proposed by Gustav Ising in 1924, while the first machine that worked was constructed by Rolf Widerøe in 1928 at the RWTH Aachen University. Linacs have many applications: they generate X-rays and high energy electrons for medicinal purposes in radiation therapy, serve as particle injectors for higher-energy accelerators, and are used directly to achieve the highest kinetic energy for light particles for particle physics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rutherford scattering experiments</span> Experiments proving existence of atomic nuclei

The Rutherford scattering experiments were a landmark series of experiments by which scientists learned that every atom has a nucleus where all of its positive charge and most of its mass is concentrated. They deduced this after measuring how an alpha particle beam is scattered when it strikes a thin metal foil. The experiments were performed between 1906 and 1913 by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden under the direction of Ernest Rutherford at the Physical Laboratories of the University of Manchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quadrupole magnet</span> Group of four magnets

Quadrupole magnets, abbreviated as Q-magnets, consist of groups of four magnets laid out so that in the planar multipole expansion of the field, the dipole terms cancel and where the lowest significant terms in the field equations are quadrupole. Quadrupole magnets are useful as they create a magnetic field whose magnitude grows rapidly with the radial distance from its longitudinal axis. This is used in particle beam focusing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electron-beam welding</span> Use of electrons to join metal parts via melting

Electron-beam welding (EBW) is a fusion welding process in which a beam of high-velocity electrons is applied to two materials to be joined. The workpieces melt and flow together as the kinetic energy of the electrons is transformed into heat upon impact. EBW is often performed under vacuum conditions to prevent dissipation of the electron beam.

An electrostatic lens is a device that assists in the transport of charged particles. For instance, it can guide electrons emitted from a sample to an electron analyzer, analogous to the way an optical lens assists in the transport of light in an optical instrument. Systems of electrostatic lenses can be designed in the same way as optical lenses, so electrostatic lenses easily magnify or converge the electron trajectories. An electrostatic lens can also be used to focus an ion beam, for example to make a microbeam for irradiating individual cells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crookes tube</span> Early type of cathode ray tube

A Crookes tube is an early experimental electrical discharge tube, with partial vacuum, invented by English physicist William Crookes and others around 1869–1875, in which cathode rays, streams of electrons, were discovered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teltron tube</span> Type of cathode ray tube

A teltron tube (named for Teltron Inc., which is now owned by 3B Scientific Ltd.) is a type of cathode ray tube used to demonstrate the properties of electrons. There were several different types made by Teltron including a diode, a triode, a Maltese Cross tube, a simple deflection tube with a fluorescent screen, and one which could be used to measure the charge-to-mass ratio of an electron. The latter two contained an electron gun with deflecting plates. The beams can be bent by applying voltages to various electrodes in the tube or by holding a magnet close by. The electron beams are visible as fine bluish lines. This is accomplished by filling the tube with low pressure helium (He) or Hydrogen (H2) gas. A few of the electrons in the beam collide with the helium atoms, causing them to fluoresce and emit light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electron optics</span> Electron trajectories in electromagnetic fields

Electron optics is a mathematical framework for the calculation of electron trajectories in the presence of electromagnetic fields. The term optics is used because magnetic and electrostatic lenses act upon a charged particle beam similarly to optical lenses upon a light beam.

An electron spectrometer is a device used to perform different forms of electron spectroscopy and electron microscopy. This requires analyzing the energy of an incoming beam of electrons. Most electron spectrometers use a hemispherical electron energy analyzer in which the beam of electrons is bent with electric or magnetic fields. Higher energy electrons will be bent less by the beam, this produces a spatially distributed range of energies.

An einzel lens, or unipotential lens, is a charged particle electrostatic lens that focuses without changing the energy of the beam. It consists of three or more sets of cylindrical or rectangular apertures or tubes in series along an axis. It is used in ion optics to focus ions in flight, which is accomplished through manipulation of the electric field in the path of the ions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sextupole magnet</span> Component

A sextupole magnet consist of six magnetic poles set out in an arrangement of alternating north and south poles arranged around an axis. They are used in particle accelerators for the control of chromatic aberrations and for damping the head—tail transverse plasma instability. Two sets of sextupole magnets are used in transmission electron microscopes to correct for spherical aberration.

This is a subdivision of the Oscilloscope article, discussing the various types and models of oscilloscopes in greater detail.

This glossary of physics is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to physics, its sub-disciplines, and related fields, including mechanics, materials science, nuclear physics, particle physics, and thermodynamics. For more inclusive glossaries concerning related fields of science and technology, see Glossary of chemistry terms, Glossary of astronomy, Glossary of areas of mathematics, and Glossary of engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beam deflection tube</span> Vacuum tube with an electron beam deflectable to one of two anodes

Beam deflection tubes, sometimes known as sheet beam tubes, are vacuum tubes with an electron gun, a beam intensity control grid, a screen grid, sometimes a suppressor grid, and two electrostatic deflection electrodes on opposite sides of the electron beam that can direct the rectangular beam to either of two anodes in the same plane.

A time base generator is a special type of function generator, an electronic circuit that generates a varying voltage to produce a particular waveform. Time base generators produce very high frequency sawtooth waves specifically designed to deflect the beam of a cathode ray tube (CRT) smoothly across the face of the tube and then return it to its starting position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deflection yoke</span> Part of a cathode ray tube which moves the electron beam around

A deflection yoke is a kind of magnetic lens, used in cathode ray tubes to scan the electron beam both vertically and horizontally over the whole screen.

References

  1. L.W. Turner (ed)., Electronics Engineer's Reference Book, Newnes-Butterworth, 1976, ISBN   0-408-00168-2, pp. 7-90 - 7-92
  2. M. Retsky and R. Stein. Testing an electron beam deflection innovation: Initial results. Jour. Vacuum Science and Tech. B 20(6): 2678-2681 Nov/Dec 2002.

See also