A novel approach to the Child-Langmuir law Article uri icon

abstract

  • We analyze the motion of charged particles in a vacuum tube diode using a new set of variables. We obtain the space charge limited current for a charged particle moving non-relativistically in one dimension for the case of zero and non zero initial velocity without solving a nonlinear differential equation. We introduce what we call the microscopic Child-Langmuir law which is valid for the classical and relativistic cases that allows to determine the space charge limited current without solving a nonlinear differential equation.

publication date

  • 2017-01-01