THE INTEGRAL APPROACH TO THE SPUTTERING

The emission-oriented integral form of Boltzmann transport equation is applied to the sputtering phenomenon. It is shown that the central qu antity in the formulation, namely the characteristic mean free path of the phenomenon, can be the low-energy transport mean free path. The s ame mean free path gives a measure of the mean escape depth as derived in experiments and computer simulation studies. Finally, the sputteri ng yields, calculated by using the same mean free path, when compared with the experimental results, show an evident improvement with respec t to the Sigmund theory.