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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

LOW-ENERGY SPUTTERING STUDIES. Annual Report, July 15, 1960 to July 14, 1961

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4807126· OSTI ID:4807126
A study is made on the sputtering of gold and aluminum by beams of noble gases at normal incidence between 0 and 1000 ev. Gold is bombarded by He/sup +/, Ne/sup +/, Ar/sup +/, and Xe/sup +/, and aluminum by Ne/sup +/, Ar/sup +/, and Kr/ sup +/. Sputtering is measured by the crystal oscillator method. Using 20-Mc crystals in the oscillator, it is possible to detect the average removal of 0.01 angstrom from a surface by sputtering. Secondary electron emission from the target is suppressed, and sputtering yields ( mu ) are given in atoms per ion. The increase in mu with beam energy is a nearly linear function in terms of mu /(1 + gamma ), where gamma is the number of secondary electrons emitted per incident ion. The experimental results are analyzed in the light of theories on sputtering yields and thresholds. (auth)
Research Organization:
General Dynamics/Astronautics, San Diego, Calif.
NSA Number:
NSA-16-009280
OSTI ID:
4807126
Report Number(s):
ERR-AN-072
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English