MOLECULAR-DYNAMICS STUDY OF SPUTTERING OF CU(111) UNDER AR ION-BOMBARDMENT

We have used the molecular dynamics (MD) technique using many-body int eraction potentials to analyse in detail the processes leading to sput ter emission, in order to gain a microscopic understanding of low ener gy bombardment phenomena Calculations were performed for a Cu (111) si ngle crystal surface bombarded with Ar atoms in the energy range from 10-1000 eV. The results presented for low bombarding energies are main ly concerned with the near sputtering threshold behaviour, yields and depth of origin of sputtered atoms. Furthermore, it is found, that in addition to sputtered atoms, a large number of ad-atoms at the surface are generated during the evolution of the collision cascade. At highe r energies the question of cluster emission and especially their energ y distribution and angular distribution are addressed. It was found th at the energy distributions for the dimers and monomer atoms exhibit a similar dependence on emission energy as has been observed recently a lso experimentally. For atoms good agreement with the theoretical Sigm und-Thompson energy distribution was observed. However, for dimers we found that the energy distributions exhibit an asymptotic behaviour at high energies with E(-3) rather than with E(-5), as predicted in prev ious modelling of cluster emission. Concerning the angular distributio ns six emission spots, three strong ones in the [110] and three weak o nes in the [100] direction were found for atoms, but for dimers only e mission spots in the [110] direction were observed, in agreement with experimental results.