On Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 4:08 PM, Axil Axil <[email protected]> wrote:
The principal use of lanthanum hexaboride is in hot cathodes<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_cathode>, > either as a single crystal or as a coating deposited by physical vapor > deposition <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_vapor_deposition>. > Hexaborides, such as lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) and cerium > hexaboride<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerium_hexaboride>(CeB > 6), have low work functions <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_function>, > around 2.5 eV <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronvolt>. > > The voltage produce by heat only is low. Is that true? > I'm not sure. I'm guessing that for an individual ejection of an electron, the energy is low, since thermionic emission is a chemical process. But if a significant current can be set up by a large number of simultaneous events, then I suppose the low amount of energy in an individual event will not be a show-stopper. Keep in mind that if in a hypothetical scenario you could interpose a single electron between two fusion precursors, I understand the tunneling probability changes significantly. Here we're talking about transients possibly with a large number of electrons that could have a stronger effective charge per unit length than a single electron magically held between two nuclei. I believe the principle behind the Polwell is the virtual cathode formed by electrons at the center of the device attract positively charged ions to them and to one another, increasing the tunneling probability. This is a similar idea, but on miniature scale and hopefully with higher charge density. In this case I doubt that the fusion would result from the ions being accelerated towards one another; instead, I assume it would occur because they are slowly drawn nearby one another and linger around. Eric
