Discusses the emission of positive ions from liquid metals under the action of high electric fields. High brightness sources are being developed with a variety of applications in mind. The basic principles of such sources are discussed and the design and experimental behaviour of a gallium source are described in detail. Measurements of the current-voltage characteristics of the source, together with the angular distribution of the beam are presented. The current-voltage behaviour is found to be in agreement with the predictions of a simple space charge model. Field ion creation mechanisms require liquid metal emitting features of submicron dimensions and this does not appear to be consistent with space-charge considerations and the best available microscopic observations. This apparent paradox can be resolved if a highly mobile emitting feature is assumed to exist.
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Prewett et al. (1980) studied this question.
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