Research on the Sputtering of Multicomponent Materials by Ion Bombardment.

Experiments on cone formation in sputtering of multicomponent materials were continued. Auger electron spectroscopy of insulator surfaces poses no particular problems when one operates with the primary beam energy in regimes where the secondary electron coefficient is larger than unity. The main part of the work concerns in situ Auger electron spectroscopy studies of sputter deposition and sputter removal of Mo from various metal surfaces. The sputtering yield of Mo atoms from Cu, Au, Al expecially at low ion energies is much lower than that of Mo from Mo 200 eV Ar ions remove Mo atoms from an Al surface with a yield which is only 11000 of the bulk Mo yield. Mo monolayer islands protect the underlying Cu, Au, Al from being sputtered and this is responsible for the formation of cones. A significant conclusion is that the use of low energy ion bombardment for layer removal and determination of composition profiles may often lead to erroneous results. Author