Slowing down and thermalization of sputtered particle fluxes: Energy distributions

Particles sputtered from solid targets in plasma deposition systems, under typical vacuum conditions, slow down in collisions with the gas phase. A simple model of particle slowing down along straight-line trajectories, subject to a continuous energy loss process, allows to calculate the energy distributions of the nonthermalized component of the particle flux as a function of the distance to the source. Physically reasonable angular and energetic distributions of the flux at emission are used in the calculations. The implications on the deposited films are discussed, and previous estimates by Meyer et al. [J. Appl. Phys. 52, 5803 (1981)] are commented upon.