Sputtering by Particle Bombardment

This book provides a long-needed survey of new results. Especially welcome is a new summary of the measured and calculated sputtering yields with an algebraic approximation formula for the energy and angular dependence of the yields, which is useful for researchers who need sputtering yields for physics research or applied problems. The book offers a critical review of computational methods for calculating sputtering yields and also includes molecular dynamics calculations.

This volume gives a comprehensive overview about the physical processes causing sputtering of solids at bombardment with energetic ions. The most important quantities are the sputtering yields, i.e. the average number of atoms eroded per incident ion. The latest results for the sputtering yields and their dependence on the incident energy and angle of incidence, as well as the energy and angular distributions of the sputtered atoms are presented. This concerns experimentally determined yields as well as a critical evaluation of the computational methods used to calculate the yields and distributions. The energies of the incident ions cover the range between a few eV up to several MeV. The influence of chemical effects between the incident ions and the atoms of the bombarded solid on the sputtering yields are also reviewed.