cathode ray (redirected from Cathode stream)

cathode ray

Stream of electrons leaving the negative electrode, or cathode, in an evacuated or gas-filled discharge tube or emitted by a heated filament in certain electron tubes. Cathode rays cause fluorescent materials to luminesce and are utilized in cathode-ray oscilloscopes and television tubes (see cathode-ray tube).

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cathode ray

In the early part of the 20th century, it was the first name given to electron beams emitted from a negatively charged cathode in a vacuum tube. The term has been used ever since. See CRT.

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cathode ray [′kath‚ōd ¦rā]

(electronics)

A stream of electrons, such as that emitted by a heated filament in a tube, or that emitted by the cathode of a gas-discharge tube when the cathode is bombarded by positive ions.