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How to calculate thermionic work function

  1. Feb 22, 2009 #1
    How do you calculate the thermionic work function of an element (hydrogen for example)?

    I understand it is usually about 1/2 the ionization energy , but is there a formula to get the exact energy?

    Can hydrogen even have a work function?

    Thanks in advance.
  2. jcsd
  3. Feb 23, 2009 #2
    its related to the fermi energy more than the ionization energy, but the difficult part is the effective surface dipole

    try this:

    DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.68.195408
  4. Feb 23, 2009 #3
    Thanks. Do you have a link for it?

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