A field-emission electron gun includes a field-emission cathode including
a single fiber-like carbon substance and an electrically-conductive
substrate for supporting the substance, an extractor for field-emitting
electrons, an accelerating electrode for accelerating the electrons, an
extracting power-supply for applying extracting voltage to the extractor,
an accelerating power-supply for applying accelerating voltage to the
accelerating electrode, and a unit for detecting and monitoring a part of
emission current. In this field-emission electron gun, if
emission-variation amount has become larger than a predetermined value,
the extracting voltage is automatically boosted for a constant length of
time, thereby increasing the emission current up to a predetermined
value. Further, extracting voltage at the time of boosting the extracting
voltage, voltage-boosting time, and the emission current are recorded,
then being feed-backed to voltage-boosting conditions for the next-time
extracting voltage. Moreover, the accelerating voltage is varied in
correspondence with the voltage-boosting of the extracting voltage.