A new variant of vacuum arc ion source is described whereby the problems of short cathode lifetime and low charge states, commonly found for low boiling point cathode materials, are avoided. This novel source embodiment has been operated using bismuth as the wanted ionic species. It was found that the ion charge state spectrum can be improved (i.e., increased) significantly, with the charge state of maximum amplitude being increased from Bi1+to Bi3+, and the number of pulses that were obtained before the cathode needed changing was 108.