Field Ionization in Liquids

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Abstract
Field ionization in liquid H2, Ar, He, N2, and O2 has been studied and approximate mobilities obtained for the respective positive ions. In the case of He, field ionization leads to charge multiplication because of sufficient ion acceleration in the high-field region near the emitter. In the case of H2 and Ar linear lni or lni / V vs 1 / V plots could be obtained at low currents, indicating that current generation was controlled by tunneling. Simple models for tunneling from the valence band and from noninteracting molecules are derived and applied to these systems. For the experimental data applied to Ar the band model yielded a bandgap of 13 eV, in excellent agreement with theoretical and optical measurements. For H2 the noninteracting molecule and the band model give equally reasonable results.

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