Energy Distribution of Sputtered Atomic Structures

Abstract The process of energy exchange upon interaction of an ion beam with a solid surface is considered within the framework of a pairwise interaction model under ion sputtering. The multifactorial nature of this process is noted, as well as existing controversies in the literature regarding the energy dependence of the ionization probability of sputtered particles and the interpretation of their energy distributions. A quantum-wave approach is proposed to describe the ejected particle as a wave packet using de Broglie waves. Based on perturbation theory and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, an analytical dependence is derived that relates the energy width of the secondary particle spectrum to the mass ratio of the incident ion and the ejected atom, the bombardment energy, and the geometric size of the exchange region.