The angular distribution of atoms sputtered from a Ga-In eutectic alloy target

Abstract

Angular distributions of sputtered atoms have been obtained for 3, 25, and 50 keV Ar+ bombardment of a liquid Ga-In eutectic alloy target. Sputtered material was collected on graphite foils which were subsequently analyzed by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, and the resulting distributions were fit by a functional form, N (θ) α. cos^nθ. For each energy, the angular distribution of sputtered In atoms was overcosine, with n_(In) ≈ 1.8 ±0.1. The distributions of the sputtered Ga atoms were sharper, varying from n_(Ga) ≈ 3.2 ± 0.2 at 25 and 50 keV, to n_(Ga) = 4.9 ± 0.3 at 3 keV. A comparison of the sputtered flux composition with the alloy surface composition profile gives F_1, the fraction of sputtered atoms originating from the first atomic layer. The fraction was found to be f_1 = 0.87 ± 0.01 for 25 and 50 keV bombardment, and increased to 0.94 ± 0.01 at 3 keV. The variations of n_(ga), and F_1 with projectile energy may be the result of a decrease in the average recoil-atom energy for the 3 keV bombardment. The large values found for F_1 support a prediction that the sputtered-atom escape depth is determined by the elastic-collision mean free path of recoil atoms.

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