Microscopic insights into the sputtering of Ag{111} induced by C60 and Ga bombardment

Molecular dynamics computer simulations have been utilized to compare the differences in the mechanism of sputtering of Ag{111} by kiloelectronvolt Ga and C-60 projectiles. The calculated kinetic energy distributions of Ag monomers and Ag-2 dimers compare favorably with experimental results. The damage caused by the C-60 particle left in the sample is less than the depth of material that the next impinging C-60 particle would remove, thus supporting the preliminary experimental observations that molecular depth profiling is possible with C-60 projectile beams.