摘要
Non-resonant multiphoton ionisation combined with quadrupole and time-of-flight analysis has been used to measure energy distributions of sputtered copper atoms. The sputtering of a polycrystalline copper target by 3.6 keV Ar+, N+ and CF2+ and 1.8 keV N+ and CF2+ ion bombardment at 45° has been investigated. The linear collision model in the isotropic limit fails to describe the high energy tail of the energy distributions. However the TRIM.SP computer simulation has been shown to provide a good description. The results indicate that an accurate description of sputtering by low energy, molecular ions requires the use of computer simulation rather than analytical approaches. This is particularly important when considering plasma–surface interactions in plasma etching and deposition systems.