In the absence of an intrinsic dipole magnetic field, Mars’ O planetary ions are accelerated by the solar wind. Because of their large gyroradius, a population of these planetary ions can precipitate back into Mars’ upper atmosphere with enough energy to eject neutrals into space via collision. This process, referred to as sputtering, may have been a dominant atmospheric loss process during ear...

Submicron to micron size particles are produced in the gas phase of sputtering discharges. These particles can contaminate thin films grown by sputter deposition. On the other hand, particle production in a discharge can be desirable when used for manufacturing fine powders. Here, experimental results are presented demonstrating particle production in an argon discharge, using a variety of targ...

Recent experimental studies focusing on the morphological properties of surfaces eroded by ion-bombardment report the observation of self-affine fractal surfaces, while others provide evidence about the development of a periodic ripple structure. To explain these discrepancies we derive a stochastic growth equation that describes the evolution of surfaces eroded by ion bombardment. The coeffici...

The sputtering of D,O and CO solids by keV ions has been studied by measuring the absolute sputtering yield and the masses of ejected particles. The yield results for several ions on D,O indicate that for the case where the energy deposited in nuclear motion is comparable to that deposited electronically, the sputtering yield is still determined to a large extent by the electronic energy. The m...

Molecular dynamics simulations of the sputtering of Si by C60 keV bombardment are performed in order to understand the importance of chemical reactions between C atoms from the projectile and Si atoms in the target crystal. The simulations predict the formation of strong covalent bonds between the C and Si atoms, which result in nearly all of the C atoms remaining embedded in the surface after ...

The sputtering yield of liquid tin due to heavy-ion bombardment has been found to have significantly reduced dependence on the sample temperature than that of light-ion bombardment. These results, combined with previous light-ion data, show that the mechanisms that increase the sputtering yield of materials under ion irradiation are diminished or surpassed by the effects of heavy-ion bombardmen...

Selective growth of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) was demonstrated by plasma-enhanced pulsed laser deposition (PE-PLD). Although PLD is a physical vapor deposition technique for the growth of boron nitride (BN) thin films, ion sputtering induced by the plasma can eliminate the formation of BN thin films and lead to the so-called total resputtering region, in which, a pure phase of BNNTs can b...

Sputter deposition process is another old technique being used in modern semiconductor industries. Sputtering is a process that can deposit TiO2 material on wafer/glass substrates. In this process target is connected to negative high voltage. Further argon gas is introduced into the chamber and is ionized to a positive charge. The positively charged argon atoms are attracted and strike the nega...

Following electronic or collisional excitation of a solid by a fast ion, an energized cylindrical region is produced which can lead to sputtering. Here ejection from such a region is studied via molecular-dynamics simulations using Lennard-Jones and Morse potentials. Over the full range of excitations studied the yield vs the energy release per unit path length in the solid, which we call dE/dx...

We are analyzing erosion and tritium codeposition for ITER, DIII-D, and other devices with a focus on carbon divertor and metallic wall sputtering, for detached and semi-detached edge plasmas. Carbon chemical-sputtering/hydrocarbon-transport is computed in detail using upgraded models for sputtering yields, species, and atomic and molecular processes. For the DIII-D analysis this includes proto...