Influence of Ion Field Emission on the Dust Charge

In the interplanetary space where the dominant process charging the dust immersed in the tenuous ambient plasma is photoelectron current, the grains collect a positive charge. This charge can be further enhanced by impacts of the energetic ions. The attainable charge is limited by the ion field emission. However, the ion field emission is a term generally used for three different processes: Field ionization, field desorption, and field evaporation. First of them can be of interest under laboratory conditions but negligible in the interplanetary space because the surrounding gas is often fully ionized. Field desorption can be important but under particular circumstances, e.g., for dust grains freshly released from larger objects (like comets) because the grains are bombarded by energetic particles that rapidly clean-up their surfaces. On the other hand, the field evaporating dust grains may be important sources of heavy ions in the space. There is an observational evidence of pickup ions in the solar wind and the field emission of dust grain material was suggested to be responsible for the production of these ions. For these reasons, the knowledge of basic characteristics of the ion field emission from the dust grains is significant for understanding of the plasma processes in the space. The present study deals with the ion field emission from highly charged spherical samples form a MF resin (alternatively covered by a thin layer of Ni) and Au. The samples were charged by the ion beam of various energies up to 5 keV. Investigations of spontaneous grain discharging allow us to suggest that the field desorption (together with post-ionization) is the main process responsible for observed gradual discharging of used metallic grain samples. However, the grain charge is accumulated in a thick surface layer of non-conducting samples. The thickness of this layer depends on the mass and energy of primary ions. We can thus conclude that the charging history (mass and energy of used beam ions) together with the grain material are main factors determining the discharging currents.