Droplet emission from liquid metal ion sources and their disintegration

In recent years there have been several attempts to explain cluster emissio n from liquid metal ion sources. Droplet disintegration is widely considere d as the main mechanism for cluster formation. Since the disintegration pro cess is a critical part of cluster formation, it needs detailed description , Most authors consider ion-induced Rayleigh break-up as the most likely me chanism for droplet disintegration. In this paper we attempt to provide add itional understanding of droplet break-up. It can be shown that for low cur rents considerable disintegration occurs before the accumulated charge reac hes the Rayleigh limit. We show that the mechanism for droplet break-up dep ends on the ion current. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved .