Cerium hexaboride CeB6

Product introduction
Cerium hexaboride (CeB6) has become a cathode material with high electron emissivity because of its low work function. Compared with lanthanum boride cathode, CeB6 is more resistant to carbon pollution and has a longer life. CeB6 is widely used in electron microscope, microwave tube, electron beam etching, electron beam welding, X-ray tube and free electron laser. At present, cerium hexaboride crystal has been successfully applied to the desktop scanning electron microscope and has become an excellent and stable filament material.
Cerium hexaboride is also known as cerium boride, CeBix, CeBIX, sometimes written as CEB is an inorganic compound.
At the same time, it is very stable in vacuum. The usual working temperature of cerium hexaboride is 1450℃. Cerium hexaboride, like lanthanum hexaboride, will slowly evaporate during cathode operation. CeB6 cathode can keep its shape for a longer time at the working temperature of 1850K, so its life is longer. At the same time, because its evaporation rate is about 30% slower than lanthanum boride, the hot cathode coating of cerium boride is more difficult to remove than lanthanum boride.

Product application
Cerium hexaboride is mainly used as the coating of hot cathode, or the hot cathode is directly composed of cerium hexaboride. Cerium hexaboride (CeB6) and lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) are often used as some high current hot cathode coatings. Hexboride has a low work function, about 2.5eV, and has a certain tolerance to cathode pollution. Cerium boride cathode has a lower evaporation rate than lanthanum boride at 1700K, but they will become consistent at 1850K and even the evaporation rate will become higher above this temperature. The life of cerium boride cathode is 50% longer than that of lanthanum boride because of its higher carbon pollution resistance. The brightness of boride cathode is ten times that of tungsten cathode and its life is 10-15 times that of tungsten cathode. Some laboratory experiments show that CeB6 is more tolerant to the negative effects of carbon pollution than LaB6. They are commonly used in, for example, electron microscope, microwave tube, electron beam etching, electron beam welding, X-ray tube and free electron laser.