Abstract
The temperature effect of sputtering has been studied experimentally for KCl and NaCl single crystals under the bombardment by high density Ar ions of 5 keV from the duoplasmatron source in the range of 20°C to 400°C. The results show a remarkable change in the temperature dependence of sputtering.
The sputtering yield shows no temperature dependence below a critical value, it follows the Arrhenius law with the different activation energy for each specimen. Around the critical temperature Tc, there appears a discontinuity in the slope of the logarithm of sputtering yield. This behavior is interpreted as follows : The sputtering is caused in one way by direct collisions and a cascade process which is insensitive to temperature, and in the other way by creation of defect and its diffusion. This diffusion process gives rise to temperature effect of sputtering. Below Tc the cascade process is dominant, but the diffusion process makes the contribution above Tc. The critical temperature and the activation energy are determined from the experimental results for these specimens.
