THz driven field emission: energy and time-of-flight spectra of ions

Abstract

We present an experimental and numerical study of ion field evaporation from LaB6 nanotips using single-cycle terahertz (THz) transients and a static bias voltage. Varying the amplitude and phase of the THz pulses and the value of the bias, we explore the THz-induced reshaping of the ions energy and their time-of-flight spectra. These results prove that short THz transient of about 1 ps can induce ionization and emission of ions from LaB6 samples by a field effect: the THz transient acts as an ultra-short electrical pulse. Moreover, comparing numerical and experimental results, we prove that the response time of surface atoms to the THz transient is shorter than 1 ps, corresponding to the vibration times of acoustic phonons in LaB6.