Emission theory of amorphous-material sputtering. Energy dependence of the sputtering coefficient

Abstract

The applicability conditions for the Boltzmann kinetic equation in describing the sputtering process are analyzed. The application of the kinetic equation for calculation of the sputtering coefficient is questionable because of the small depth of origin of sputtered particles. A physical model of the emission sputtering theory for amorphous materials is proposed. The threshold sputtering energies and energy dependence of the sputtering coefficient for amorphous materials are calculated in the framework of the proposed model for the case of the normal incidence of primary ions in the energy range of 10 to 10⁵ eV. The calculations are in good agreement with the experimental results.