Beam dynamics of a liquid metal ion source

rms emittance growth of liquid‐metal ion sources is studied. Processes included are nonlinear expansion through extractor and accelerator fringe fields, nonlinear beam space charge, plasma effects near needle, and waves [either ion acoustic or space charge limited as considered by Dudnikov (private communication, 1988)]. This investigation consists of 2‐D analysis of appropriate Vlasov–Poisson equations in both steady‐state and time‐dependent formulations. Various geometries will be considered such as some used by Alton of ORNL.