In order to improve the activation characteristics and emission ability of the conventional Ir-coated impregnated tungsten cathodes, a new type of dispenser cathode with ternary alloy Ir/Re/W coating was developed. The improved cathodes show higher emission current density and faster activation characteristics than that of the conventional pure Ir-coated impregnated tungsten cathodes. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to analyze the element compositions on the surface of the cathodes coated with pure It and IdRe/W alloy. The results show that for pure It coating cathode, binary alloy (Ir/W) is formed. The surface atom concentration is near 50150 after full activation. For ternary alloy coating cathode, the surface atom concentration has changed from 35%Ir-25%Re-40%W to 33%Ir-19%Re-48%W before and after activation. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.