Abstract: The Ir nano particle thin film was grown by dcrect current magnetron sputtering at room temperature. Microstructure of thin films grown at different sputtering pressures were measured by scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the particle size of the films depends on the deposition rate in the nucleation stage of Ir films and the deposition rate can be well controlled by sputtering pressure. A new kind of cathodes are fabricated from 25% porous tungsten impregnated with 6∶1∶2-type barium calcium aluminate and coated with the nano particulate Ir thin film. The coating processes produces a film thickness of 200—500 nm and the cathodes are fired in hydrogen atmosphere for ten minutes at 1200℃ to further improve the coating microstructure. The cathodes have been studied with thermal electron microscope by which the electron-optical picture of a thermal emission cathode could be obtained. Time of flight mass spectrometer （ToFMS） has been used in a study of evaporation from impregnated cathodes. The chemical composition of evaporation of various impregnated cathodes have been measured by ToFMS. The variation of ion current of evaporants from S-type cathode and M-type cathode （coated with iridium） and n-type cathode （coated with iridium nano-particle thin film） with temperature and time have been studied and discussed. Emission current characteristics have been measured as a function of voltage and temperature.

Keywords: 
• nano particle films /
• thermal cathode /
• well-distributed emission /
• evaporation