We specialize in the design and manufacture of thermionic, field emission, and thermal field emission (TFE) cathodes made from single crystal CeBix® (cerium hexaboride), LaB6 (lanthanum hexaboride), and HfC (hafnium carbide)*, and tungsten that we refine in-house.

*Other carbides can be provided upon request.

The world’s leading microscopy, microanalysis, x-ray tube, and additive manufacturing producers come to us for innovative, high-quality electron and ion beam components.

With deep knowledge of the physics of electron emission, decades of practical experience, and advanced manufacturing capabilities, we have the unique ability to understand our customers’ needs and help them realize their vision with practical, usable, precision components of the highest quality.

APT now offers zirconiated tungsten thermal field emitters (ZrOW TFE) , known colloquially as Schottky sources. The ZrOW TFE is the industry-standard emitter for electron beam applications requiring high brightness, improved spatial resolution, stable emission, and long life. Our ZrOW sources meet general OEM performance specifications and operational parameters and can be manufactured with custom end form (radius) geometries and any emitter base/suppressor configurations including FEI/Philips, Denka, Hitachi, JEOL, or custom configurations.

As an alternative to our standard mini-Vogel mount (SMVM or MVM) heater, APT has developed a specialized heater element for thermionic cathodes or other high temperature devices. The heater is a monolithic graphite structure whose geometry can be customized to fit most standard base and cathode configurations. Driven with current and voltage settings in the ranges of 4.0 A – 7.0 A and 2.0 V – 3.5 V, APT’s innovative design can deliver stable temperatures between 1500K – 1900K to the cathode. This patent pending design provides exceptional positional stability at high temperatures over the lifetime of the cathode.

APT now offers a fully customizable Faraday cup assembly used to measure beam currents for charge particle emission experiments and other microprobe applications. Our assembly features a fully ground shielded carbon cup and an electrically isolated aperture plate. Due to the cup’s geometry and carbon’s low secondary yield, loss of signal from secondary and backscattered electrons is essentially eliminated. The isolated aperture plate acts as an additional current measuring element, providing the ability to measure beam angular intensity (current/solid angle). APT’s assembly can be manufactured with customer specified mounting configurations, aperture plate sizes, aperture diameters, and cabling.