Atom Ejection Patterns in Single-Crystal Sputtering

Experimental studies of the atom ejection patterns in single-crystal sputtering mostly by Hg+ ions have been made. These patterns give evidence of the anisotropic spread of energy from a collision center, and support the concept of focusing collisions in nearest and next-nearest neighbor directions. In Ge the patterns were found to be strikingly similar to those from a bcc crystal. This could be explained by assuming that under ion bombardment so many interstitials are formed near the surface that the atom arrangement of the Ge crystal resembles that of a bcc lattice.