Sputtering of silver by heavy atomic and molecular ion bombardment

The sputtering yield of Ag bombarded with various 10–100 keV monatomic and polyatomic ions has been measured. It is found that the energy dependence of the sputtering yield follows the energy dependence of the total surface deposited energy into atomic processes (obtained by a Monte Carlo code). The measured data show an apparent “universal” (independence with ion mass) relationship with the surface deposited energy. A critical surface …