- Accepted Paper
Bifurcation and hysteresis in vacuum diodes
Phys. Rev. E - Accepted 22 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jv7k-m1lp
Phys. Rev. E - Accepted 22 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jv7k-m1lp
The space-charge-limited-current-density (SCLCD) for a 1D vacuum diode for zero initial electron velocity, , in vacuum is given by the Child-Langmuir law, . For electrons with in vacuum, Jaff´e modified to obtain the SCLCD as . For current densities , electron reflections occur along with virtual cathode (VC) oscillations. Past studies have discussed hysteresis in diodes by sustaining these oscillations until , often claiming , where , also called the bifurcation solution, represents the steady-state current density where the electron velocity is zero at the VC. In this study, we demonstrate that is not a valid steady-state solution since it represents a higher charge density than , the true SCLCD. We further demonstrate that mathematically corresponds to the static bifurcation solution. Using particle-in-cell simulations across various gap distances and voltages, we demonstrate that consistently differs from and can be represented by a simple semi-empirical relationship as a function of .
If the author has provided any supplemental materials with this article they will be available upon publication of the version of record.