Electron Deflection Lab Report

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The relationship between the electric field strength between two parallel deflection plates and the deflection of an electron was investigated. This was done by varying the voltage on a set of deflection plates in a Cathode Ray Tube and tracking the location at which the electron beam hit the screen of the CRT. Two trials were done for different accelerating voltages, 250V and 500V, and the position data was compared to that generated by a prediction equation. The prediction equation was found to be accurate, which implies that there is a linear relationship between the electric field strength and electron deflection.
Introduction

We are attempting to design an electron microscope that steers electrons with an electric field perpendicular to their initial …show more content…

Since the plates are finite, the horizontal components of the electric field increase in magnitude as the edges of the plates are approached; thus, the horizontal component of the electron’s velocity is not constant. This would be expected to have a greater effect on a slower moving electron because the field would have more time to act upon the electron, and this is reflected in the data. The mean percent error for the deflection of the slower moving electrons of the 250V trial was significantly greater than that of the 500V trial.

Imprecision of measurements is the main source of error present within this experiment. The small screen of the CRT and relatively large size of the circle produced on the screen by the electron beam made it difficult to measure the position of the beam. This explains the greater uncertainty in the mean percent error for the 500V trial. The electrons had less deflection because they traveled through the CRT faster thus the uncertainty has a more significant effect on the mean percent error than that for the greater 250V trial values.

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