Current fluctuations from various crystal faces of a clean tungsten field emitter

The temperature, frequency and current dependence of current fluctuations have been measured for the (310), (112) and (100) planes of a tungsten field emitter. The rms percent fluctuation of the current at 900 K was 8.7, 1.5 and 0.13% and the threshold temperature for current fluctuation was 300, 650 and 1000 K for the (310), (112) and (100) planes respectively. Based on the results reported here it is concluded that the current fluctuations arise from the generation of mobile atoms on net plane terraces.