Method of Green's functions and invariance principle in the problem of sputtering of amorphous and polycrystalline targets

Abstract

A new approach to the problem of sputtering is proposed. The approach is based on the invariance principle in combination with the method of separation of fluxes. The problem is considered for the case of linear cascades in amorphous materials. An integral equation directly for the function of the sputtered atoms yield (sputtering function) is found. The cases of both self-sputtering and sputtering by arbitrary ions are investigated. The use of the method of Green's functions allows to construct a regular procedure for solving the integral equations obtained. To illustrate the approach proposed, we calculate the Green's function and the first partial sputtering function for the case of self-sputtering in the approximation of backward collisions. For the hard-spheres scattering, the angular distributions of sputtered atoms are calculated in the quasi single-collision approximation.

Key Words:

• Sputtering
• Random target
• Theory
• Invariance principle