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FEM- and AES-investigations show that the long time stability of field emission from metals is determined more by corrosive surface reactions than by simple gas adsorption or cathode sputtering. Corrosion is produced by H2O or organic vapours, but also by CO, even with partial pressures <10−10 Torr. Bombardment of corrosion layers with secondary ions has two striking effects: 1. The layers are reduced as shown by AES; therefore field emission has a cleaning effect for the cathode. 2. With heavily corroded surfaces there occur strong emission pulses. They are connected with the appearance of “molecular patterns” in the FEM, and with micro-discharges in vacuum gaps.
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Jüttner et al. (1975) studied this question.
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