GIANT SPUTTERING RATES FROM SIO (SIO2) IRRADIATED BY CARBON CLUSTERS

The irradiation of SiO and SiO2 insulator layers with 0.5-3.2 MeV C-n( +)(n = 1...10) clusters leads to large erosion coefficients. The nucle ar stopping component in these experiments is typically less than 5% o f the total, and all observed effects are presumably due to the large electronic stopping energy density deposition upon cluster break-up. T he sputtering yield can reach two hundred molecules per carbon cluster , i.e. two orders of magnitude higher than those obtained with single ion irradiations at the same energy per atom. (C) 1997 Elsevier Scienc e B.V.