Mechanism of negative ion emission from surfaces of ferroelectrics

Experimental studies of the mechanism of negative ion and cluster ion emission from surfaces of ferroelectrics are described. The emission was produced by negative voltage pulses with the amplitude of about 400 V, with a rapid rise-time (below 10 ns) and a slow decay‐time (several μs). The pulses were applied between the back side of the ferroelectric sample and the metal tip touching the front emitting side. The surface of the ferroelectrics could be cleaned in situ by 1 keV Ar+ bombardment. The morphologic changes around the tip were observed with an atomic force microscope (AFM). Mostly negative ions and cluster ions were emitted and studied in our experiments. Positive ions were detected with much lower probability and are produced by an entirely different microscopic process than negative ions. Masses as well as energies of emitted ions were measured with a time-of-flight (TOF) spectrometer and compared with available spontaneous desorption (SD) spectra and Cs‐SIMS spectra in order to clarify the mechanism of the emission. The trajectory of ions emitted from the sample was studied by computer simulation. The conclusion of these studies is that the negative ion emission is caused by the Coulomb explosion of a polarization cloud rapidly formed at the front edge of the pulse. The explosion takes place in the vicinity of the tip-sample contact at distances several tens of μm from the contact where the stabilizing effect of the positively charged tip is already small.