Sputtering mechanisms near the threshold energy

Threshold energies for sputtering cannot be calculated directly but have to be evaluated from the energy dependence of the sputtering yields. This paper investigates trajectories of projectile and recoils near the threshold energy for sputtering, where the collision cascade becomes increasingly simple. Statistics of the different collision events show which processes dominate the sputtering close to the threshold energy for selfbombardment of different light and heavy targets. The differential cross-sections for scattering and recoil production explain qualitatively the probability for the various processes. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.