electron tube: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	vacuum tube • gas-filled tube • gas electron tube • valve

Photos

Elements of the simplest electron tube, the diode.

Diagram of a two-cavity klystron tube showing labeled components including cathode, anode, buncher and catcher cavities, grids, drift space, and electron flow from RF input to RF output.

Diagram showing the main components of a magnetron, including a cross-section with magnets, cooling fins, output antenna, ceramic insulator, and a detailed view of the anode, cathode, electron paths, cavities, and RF fields.

Diagram of a traveling-wave tube showing labeled components including the electron-emitting cathode, electron gun, focus electrode, anode, electron beam, RF input and output, helix, magnetic field, and multistage depressed collector.

Cutaway diagram of a gyrotron showing labeled components including the electron gun, resonant cavity, magnetic field coils, vessel, and beam collector, with arrows indicating electron and microwave beam paths.

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Topics

electric discharge tube traveling-wave tube thermionic valve gyrotron Geiger-Müller tube fast-wave electron tube electron multiplier dynatron crossed-field amplifier beam-power tube integrated circuit amplifier memristor voltage regulator resistance parallel circuit Kirchhoff’s rules galvanometer ammeter voltmeter

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Key People

Langmuir, Irving

Irving Langmuir

American chemist

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Albert Wallace Hull

American physicist