Low-power-loss and high voltage X-ray tube with graphite nanospines cold cathode

We report a low-power-loss and high voltage X-ray tubes with a graphite nanospines (GNS) cold cathode. The cathode is encapsulated in a glass tube having a Beryllium window with a Tantalum film to generate X-rays. The internal tube pressure was below 10−7 Pa and a tube current exceeding 1 mA at a tube voltage of 22.9 kV was observed in the fabricated X-ray tube. The tube current dispersion, defined as standard deviation/mean (σ/mean), was relatively small at 2.4%. An X-ray radiation dose rate exceeding 5 Sv/h was obtained from the X-ray tube and the radiation dose rate dispersion was also small (σ/mean=0.3%). As an application of the X-ray tube, we demonstrated radiography for the rapid inspection of organic products.