Thermionic diodes are thermionic-valve devices (also known as vacuum tubes, tubes, or valves), which are arrangements of electrodes surrounded by a vacuum within a glass envelope. Early examples were fairly similar in appearance to incandescent light bulbs.
In thermionic valve diodes, a current is passed through the heater filament. This indirectly heats the cathode, another internal electrode treated with a mixture of barium and strontium oxides, which are oxides of alkaline earth metals; these substances are chosen because they have a small work function. (Some valves use direct heating, in which a tungsten filament acts as both heater and cathode.) The heated central cathode causes thermionic emission of electrons into the vacuum. In forward operation, a surrounding metal electrode, called the anode, is positively charged, so that it electrostatically attracts the emitted electrons, condensing them and developing an electric current flow. However, electrons are not easily released from the unheated anode surface when the voltage polarity is reversed and hence any reverse flow is a very tiny current.
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