Electrostatic Acceleration and Deflection

of Electrons
Safety Precautions:

CAUTION:
LOW-PRESSURE GLASS TUBE AND
HIGH VOLTAGE

• Absolutely no food or drink.

• Backpacks go in the cubbies at the front of the room.
• You need your pencil case, a calculator, your lab manual and paper or a notebook.
• Inspect your tube: it should not be scratched or cracked. Handle the tube carefully. (It’s
glass.)
• The power supply should not have its power cord. If the power supply has a power
cord, call your teacher and have him/her remove it.
• Make sure the power supply is off.
• Make sure the acceleration knob (the one on the right) is turned down (all the way to the
left).
• The deflection knob must be in the middle.
• Connect your circuit and call your teacher. Do not connect wires end to end. If your
circuit is correct, your teacher will connect the power cord on the power supply.
• If a wire becomes unplugged during the experiment, turn the power supply off and call
the teacher. Do not plug the wire back while the power supply is on.
• When you are done taking data, turn the acceleration knob down, and turn the power
supply off.

Failure to follow these safety precautions will result in expulsion of

the lab and a grade of zero for the experiment.
Physics 203- NYB-05 Electricity and Magnetism 1
Electrostatic Acceleration and Deflection of Electrons

Introduction
A cathode ray tube works by boiling electrons off a cathode heating element and accelerating
them with a large voltage. The high-speed electrons then pass between a pair of charged
deflection plates so that the path of the electron is altered. Finally, the electrons strike a screen:
in our case, the end of the glass tube. All of this is done in a vacuum so that the electron can
travel through the CRT unhindered by collisions with air molecules. Figure 1 shows the
arrangements of the accelerating plates and the deflecting plates.

Figure 1: Diagram of cathode ray tube:

The CRT you will be using has a small amount of helium gas which fluoresces when the
electron beam passes through, allowing you to see the path of the beam. (You don’t
actually ‘see’ the electrons.)

In this lab you will investigate how the deflection on the screen is related to the deflecting
voltage and the accelerating voltage.

THEORY
To be developed in coming classes and labs.
Physics 203- NYB-05 Electricity and Magnetism 2
Electrostatic Acceleration and Deflection of Electrons

Figure 2: Deflecting plates and trajectory of the electrons in a cathode ray tube.

Total deflection
The total deflection 𝑌 of the electrons can be computed as
𝑉!"#
𝑌=𝛼
𝑉$%%
where 𝛼 is a constant that has dimensions of length. You will (later) show that 𝛼 is related to the
&! &)
dimensions of the CRT through 𝛼 = '( + *( where:
• 𝐿 is the length of the deflecting plates,
• 𝐷 is the distance from the deflecting plates to the screen, and
• 𝑑 is the spacing between the deflecting plates

You will be testing whether this prediction holds in the real world for your CRT.

Procedure
SETUP

STOP! Before you begin:

Inspect your tube: it should not be scratched or cracked. Handle your tube carefully during the
experiment

The power supply should not have its power cord. If the power supply has a power cord, call
your teacher and have him/her remove it.

Make sure the power supply is turned off.

Make sure the acceleration knob (the one on the right) is turned down (all the way to the left).

The deflection knob must be in the middle.

Physics 203- NYB-05 Electricity and Magnetism 3
Electrostatic Acceleration and Deflection of Electrons

1. Source of electrons. Connect the leads of the heater terminals (6.3 V) of the CRT tube to the
6.3V (2A MAX) terminals. (Refer to figures 3 and 4.) Current will make a filament hot enough
to glow. Some electrons acquire enough energy to ‘boil off’ the filament (thermionic emission).

2. Acceleration. Connect the Cathode and Anode terminals of the CRT to the positive and
negative terminals of the power supply. (Refer to figures 3 and 4.) This is Vacc and is controlled
by the big knob.

3. Deflection. Connect the Deflection Plates terminals of the CRT to the blue terminals. (Refer to
figures 3 and 4.) This is Vdef . Connect a voltmeter to measure the deflection voltage.

Call your teacher to have your circuit checked. Your teacher will give you a power cord.

Figures 3 and 4 show the back of the high voltage power supply.
A and B are the connections for the filament.
E and F are the connections for the deflecting plates.
D and C are the connections for the accelerating plates.
You should connect A to A, B to B and so on.
Accelerating voltage Connect the voltmeter to
displayed here measure the Vdef

Green light indicates power

supply is on. (It should be off
when you are plugging stuff.)

Red light indicates danger:

stop and call your teacher

Figure 3: Front of high voltage power supply

Physics 203- NYB-05 Electricity and Magnetism 4
Electrostatic Acceleration and Deflection of Electrons

Figure 4: Back of cathode ray tube

Taking data
1. Estimate, as best you can, 𝐿, 𝐷, and 𝑑 for your CRT. Also estimate a reasonable
uncertainty for each of these estimates.

2. Set the power switch of the power supply to the ON position. Slowly increase Vacc ;
beyond about 100 V a beam should appear.

3. Repeat the following for 4 different values of accelerating voltage 𝑉+,, :

a. Scan through the range of deflecting voltages and note the path traced on the
screen. Place a piece of tape on the screen over this path. Note how the dot
moves when you increase (make more positive). Draw a small arrow on the side
of your tape.
b. Set deflecting voltage 𝑉!"# = 0 V. Record this on your tape with a ‘special’ dot
(e.g., a dot with a circle around it, a dot with a different colour…)
c. For three different positive and three different negative values of 𝑉!"# , make a dot
on your tape where the electrons are landing.
d. Remove your tape from the CRT and place it on a piece of millimetric paper.
Align it with the arrow (direction of increasing voltage) point up, with the 𝑉!"# =
0 V ddot (the ‘special’ one) at a grid intersection, and with the path of the dots
aligned (a best as possible) along a vertical line.
e. On the millimetric paper, record the 𝑉+,, for this run. Also, for each dot on the
tape, record the corresponding value of 𝑉!"# .

Once you have completed the above for 4 different values of accelerating voltage, read the
values of deflection from your paper, and produce a beautiful graph.

You’ll submit this graph, and a scan of your millimetric paper, as a lab activity on Léa. You’ll
need to retain these, as you’ll be using these for your first major report.