Field evaporation of impurity ions from a liquid gallium ion source

The charge states of ions emitted from a gallium liquid metal field ion (LMI) source contaminated with tin and copper have been measured. The results for tin show that the proportion of Sn²⁺ to Sn⁺ is much larger than is found for a LMI source of pure tin. A model in which Sn²⁺ is assumed to be produced by post-ionization of Sn⁺ is used to set an upper limit to the electric field at the point of emission. Its value is approximately equal to that predicted by field evaporation theory for a pure gallium source. Consequently the charge states of emitted impurity ions are determined by field strengths imposed by the main component.     

Experimental investigation on field evaporation of singly and doubly charged rhodium

Field ion mass spectrometry and field ion appearance spectroscopy are used to analyze field evaporation processes of singly and doubly charged rhodium ions. Field strengths were ranged between 17 and 41 V/nm at tip temperatures between 600 and 100 K. The appearance energies of doubly charged species were found to increase with increasing field strengths from 29.5 ± 0.4 to 32.0 ± 0.2 eV, those of the singly charged species from 11.2 ± 0.1 to 12.4 ± 0.1 eV. Activation energies as determined from measured temperature dependences of the ion counting rates are equal for both kinds of ionic species and decrease from 1.5 to 0.05 eV with increasing field strengths. The observed field dependences cannot be predicted from the image hump model of field evaporation. Evaporation of Rh¹⁺is better understood using the charge exchange model. Generation of Rh²⁺ is described by the postionization of Rh¹⁺ within the frame of a simple potential energy model from which the average interaction energy of rhodium surface atoms with their nearest neighbours may be derived.     

Track-membrane-based interface for field evaporation of ions from polar solutions in the diffusion-drift regime

The possibility of realization of barrier-free field evaporation regime for ions from polar solutions in the conditions when the flux of ions from the liquid is limited by their diffusion and drift from the bulk to the surface is considered. The strength of the electric field extracting ions is estimated by simulating electric fields in an ion source with a track membrane as the interface with allowance for the sizes of channels in the membrane and their density. It is shown that when time-dependent electric fields are used, the regime of barrier-free field evaporation can be realized with an appropriate choice of geometrical parameters of the membrane.     

A new channel of the concentration decay of doubly charged helium ions in a plasma

A model describing the decay of concentrations of excited helium atoms and ions taking into account doubly ionized helium is constructed on the basis of experimental data on excitation of a helium plasma by a pulsed electron beam. From this model, the rate constant of reaction He⁺⁺+He_m→He⁺+He ₀ ⁺ is estimated. It is found to agree in order of magnitude with theoretical estimates made in the framework of a model of polarization capture.     

Singly charged tungsten and tantalum ions observed during high-temperature field evaporation

High-temperature field evaporation of tungsten and tantalum emitters in the temperature range from room temperature to 2500 K is studied using a static magnetic mass spectrometer equipped with a field source of ions. At room temperature, triply charged W³⁺ and Ta³⁺ ions alone are observed in the mass spectra. However, as the emitter temperature grows, the charge of the ions decreases. At T ≈ 1000 K, doubly charged W²⁺ and Ta²⁺ ions dominate in the spectra, and singly charged W⁺ and Ta⁺ ions appear in the temperature range 1900 < T < 2500 K. The evaporation rate of the singly charged ions is one to two orders of magnitude lower than the evaporation rate of the doubly charged particles. The energy parameters of field evaporation for differently charged tungsten ions are found.     

Influence of Marangoni instability on evaporation of the polar liquid film

A thin film of an evaporating polar liquid on a solid substrate is investigated within the framework of the lubrication theory. Using linear analysis, we have found that stability of the film depends only on two control parameters: the evaporation and Maranagoni numbers. We demonstrate that the Marangoni effect plays a destabilizing role while evaporation stabilizes the film.     

A model of a two-electron mechanism of formation of doubly charged ions upon multiphoton ionization of alkaline-earth atoms

A model of a two-electron mechanism of formation of doubly charged ions upon multiphoton ionization of alkaline-earth atoms is described on the basis of recent experimental studies.     

Formation of doubly charged negative ions under the conditions of the resonant electron capture by fluorofullerenes

Doubly charged negative ions formed when electrons with controlled energies interact with isolated fluorinated fullerene molecules C₆₀F _n (n = 36, 48) have been detected and investigated by resonant electron capture mass spectrometry. The dependence of the intensity of the formation of doubly charged negative ions of fluorofullerenes on the energy of attached electrons has been measured. An original method, which is based on the experimental data and does not require additional calibration quantities, has been developed for estimating the absolute cross section for the formation of doubly charged negative ions. The absolute cross sections for the formation of the most intensely formed ions C₆₀F ₃₆ ^2? and C₆₀F ₄₈ ^2? are estimated to be about 1.1 × 10^?24 and 1.5 × 10^?24 m² at their maximum-yield energies of 2.0 and 1.6 eV, respectively.     

Decay properties of a class of doubly charged Higgs bosons

We study the leptonic decays of a doubly charged Higgs bosons class which is predicted by a model based on the SU_(3)C⊗SU_(2)L⊗U_(1)N$\mathrm{SU}{(3)}_C\otimes \mathrm{SU}{(2)}_L\otimes \mathrm{U}{(1)}_N$ electroweak gauge symmetry. In contrast to other models, decays into τ^±τ^±${\tau }^{\pm }{\tau }^{\pm }$ are largely dominant (99.5% or more). Coupling of these scalars to two standard charged gauge bosons are either zero or very suppressed. Couplings to two different flavor of charged leptons do not occur. Some coupling features imposed by symmetry and representation content lead to simple relationships between decay rates and doubly charged Higgs masses. Some of the parameters depend only on the decay widths and on the charged lepton masses. In order to clarify the relevance of our results, some aspects of this model are compared with the Higgs triplet model.     

Probability of the two-electron mechanism of the formation of doubly charged barium ions as a function of laser radiation intensity

The formation of singly and doubly charged ions upon nonlinear ionization of barium atoms is studied as a function of the frequency and intensity of a 8800-8920-cm^?1 IR color center laser. Barium atoms are ionized via the four-photon resonance with the strongly perturbed bound 6p ^{2 1} D ₂ state. Doubly charged barium ions are produced by a two-electron mechanism. It is found that the probability of the formation of doubly charged ions under these conditions linearly depends on the laser radiation intensity.     

Electric-field-induced ion evaporation from dielectric liquid

A direct proof of ion field evaporation from dielectric liquids is presented. The flux of sodium ions ejected from the surface of an electrospray of formamide is measured using time-of-flight and retarding potential techniques. The electric field at the emitting surface is varied through the electrospraying parameters. We find that the evaporated ion current is a very steep function of the electric field.     

Dissociation of doubly charged alkali metal clusters

We have studied the competition experimentally observed between fission and neutral atom evaporation, as dissociation channels of excited doubly charged sodium clusters, using the Density Functional Theory and the jellium model. The fission barrier has been obtained from an Extended Thomas-Fermi calculation including density gradient corrections to the kinetic energy of the electronic cloud. We discuss the influence of the coefficient of the density gradient term on the barrier height.     

Stable doubly charged positive molecular ions formed by direct attachment of alpha particles to HCN and HNC

The existence of [HeNCH](2+) and [HeCNH](2+) is examined by reliable high-level ab initio methods. It is shown that both species are metastable with respect to the proton loss process, but the activation barriers are high enough to accommodate several resonant states. Their estimated lifetimes are practically infinite for v<3, implying that the attachment of alpha particles to HNC and HCN yields kinetically stable dications. This could be an important factor in the cyanide chemistry in interstellar and comet environments.     

Field evaporation of a Hf-Mo alloy

The field evaporation of a Hf-Mo alloy (15 wt. % Hf) is investigated using a time-of-flight atom probe. A moderately heated tip detects an impurity of Hf and Mo oxides on the surface. Thermofield microprotrusions grown at T=1440–1850 K in an electric field (retarding to electrons) of intensity E=(3.2–5)×10⁷ V/cm are analyzed at room temperature and above. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 68, 69–73 (March 1998)