Reemission of sputtered material from collecting foils at high impact energies

Abstract

The sticking probability of sputtered Cu, Ag and Au at collector foils was studied at 400 keV primary ion energy. It was observed (i) that a sizable fraction of the impinging material is reemitted, and (ii) that this fraction depends on the amount of material accumulated on the collector for Au, and Ag, but not for Cu. Interesting effects were observed for sputtering of a multicomponent target (Cu-Ag-Au). It is suggested that resputtering by reflected primary ions and selfsputtering by sputtered particles arriving at the collector play a major role for the reemission effect.