Low-temperature ion emission

The kinetics of alkali metal ion emission from metal surfaces heated to temperatures of 800–2500 K is studied. The ion current relaxation is described by the relationship \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $$I = Ae^{ - B\sqrt t } + {C \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {C {\sqrt t }}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {\sqrt t }} + I_0 $$ \end{document}. After the relaxation, the ion emission is recovered when the surface is exposed to H2O at room temperature. The nature of the phenomenon is discussed.