ABSTRACT
Metals borides form a very large group of compounds that in general possess high electric and thermal conductivities, high hardness and heat resistance, as well as various functional properties (Samsonov et al. 1975, Takeda et al. 2004). Although lanthanum hexaboride has been known for many years as an effective electron and ion emitter because of low work function (Kerley et al. 1990, Boustani et al. 2001), new applications exploiting its unusual electron emission properties are still being investigated (Delley & Monnier 2004, Schelm et al. 2003). Nanostructured lanthanum hexaboride has been reported (Bao et al. 2010) to exhibit enhanced thermionic emission compared to that of coarse-grained LaB6. Besides, nanocrystalline LaB6 particles have been predicted to provide important advantages for infrared absorbers.
