Resonant electron transfer during ion-beam sputtering of metals studied bydouble-resonant laser ionization

This paper deals with the investigation of electronic processes by resonanc e ionization spectroscopy during keV ion-beam sputtering of metals. We repo rt the measurement of the population partition over the ground and metastab le states of sputtered Sr atoms and its interpretation involving sputtering data for Co and Ni. The observations indicate that the population of a par ticular state strongly depends on the correspondence of the electronic conf iguration of the atomic state with the bulk electronic configuration. The c ombined interpretation of the sputtering results provides strong evidence t hat the electronic states are predominantly populated by resonant electron transfer from the metal to the sputtered particle. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scienc e B.V. All rights reserved.