CURRENT VOLTAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF A GAS-FIELD ION-SOURCE WITH A SUPERTIP

The field ionization properties of a supertip, a fine protrusion on top of a regular emitter, have been studied for hydrogen and the lighter rare gases. The parameter set included tip temperature, tip radius, gas temperature and gas pressure. Due to the local field enhancement at the supertip site, angular current intensities of 35 μA sr-1 and values of brightness up to 1010 A cm-2 sr-1 have been obtained near the optimum temperature of the gas-tip system. At temperatures below this, the gas density reaches values typical for a condensed phase. In geometrical proportion, the regular tip area appears to serve as a gas supply for the supertip current.