Determination of work function of metals and alloys using diode with spiral anode

A new variety of thermionic method for determining the work function (WF) is described. Thermionic current flow from electrically heated short homogeneous filament to spiral anode, voltage drop along the filament, and temperature of the filament ends are measured, whereas temperature distribution along the filament and WFs are obtained by computer simulation. The WFs obtained for tungsten and ReMo alloy are 4.53 and 4.23 eV, respectively.