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This book is based on lectures given, over the last ten years, by the author and others of the physics department at the Northampton Polytechnic, to undergraduate engineers, and to graduates in engineering and pure science. It is written from the point of view of a physicist interested in the applications of a branch of his subject, and is intended to provide a background for the circuit specialist, and a starting-point for the tube specialist. Attention is paid mainly to the physical action of electronic devices, but the basic circuit-work is covered. The standard of the book is roughly that which may be expected of the electronics paper for the London first degree in engineering, but in some directions it may be found to have gone a little further. The standard expected of the reader is nominally that of a second-year physicist, a third-year engineer, or a graduate in any other science
but most of the text should be comprehensible to anyone with a Higher School Certificate and a knowledge of alternating currents.
The text is designed to be read continuously, without reference to the notes, which are placed with the references at the end of each chapter. The notes are all independent extensions of the text, and nowhere contribute to its main argument ; they should be ignored until their chapter is finished, and may be ignored altogether on a first reading. So may the appendices. Of the exercises at the end of each chapter, some are designed to carry further the work of the text, others are pure problems, and yet others are numerical substitutions intended to develop the reader’s sense of magnitudes. Tables are numbered only where they give data of general usefulness. Sections are numbered consecutively throughout the book. Equations are numbered simply from 1 upwards, within each section ; but when an equation is quoted from another section, its number is prefaced with that of the section:
12.3 is equation 3 of section 12.
The Physical Background
The Motion of Charged Particles in Electric and Magnetic Fields
Cathode Ray Tubes
The Space-Charge-Limited Current in a Diode
The Triode Valve
Thermionic Emission
The Initial Velocities of Emitted Electrons
Multi-Grid Valves
The Valve as a Linear Circuit Element, Part I : Class A Audio Frequency Amplifiers
The Valve as a Circuit Element, Part II : Class A Radio Frequency Amplifiers
The Valve as a Switch : Amplifiers Class B and C, and Oscillators
Oscillators without Feed-Back
Some Oscillators for Very High Frequencies
The Valve as a Non-Linear Device : Rectifiers, Detectors, and Mixers
The Fundamentals of Gas Discharge Tubes
Gas Discharge Tubes
Photo-Electric Cells
Noise
The Kinetic Theory of Gases
Metals, Insulators, and Semi-Conductors
The Thermodynamics of Electron Emission
The Catcher Current in a Klystron
The Focal Lengths ot Thin Electron Lenses
The Theory of the Magnetron.
Bohr’s Theory of the Hydrogen Atom
Experiments
General Physical Constants ; M.K.S. Units ; Properties of the Elements—Atomic Number and Weight, Ionisation and Excitation Potentials, Mean Free Path of Molecules and Electrons ; Saturation Vapour Pressure of Mercury ; Properties of a Tungsten Filament—Expansion, Resistance, Thermionic Emission, Current, Voltage, Life, Power Consumption ; Melting-Points, Resistivities and Temperature Coefficients of Metals ; Thermal Emission and Resistance of Nickel ; Thermal and Thermionic Emission of Tungsten, Thoriated Tungsten, Molybdenum and Tantalum ; Optical Pyrometry Corrections ; Colour Temperature of Tungsten ; Amplification Factor (Chart 1) ; Anode Current and Mutual Conductance (Chari 2)
Answers to Exercises
Name-Index
Subject-Index