The angular distribution of gold selfsputtered under thermal-spike conditions

Abstract The angular distribution of gold self-sputtered at room temperature by 10–30 keV/atom Au − , Au 2 − and Au 3 − has been measured. The targets were optically mirror-like films evaporated on glass substrates. For substrates cooled to nitrogen temperature (77 K) during evaporation the targets were nearly texture-free, while holding the substrates at room temperature (or slightly above) resulted in heavily 〈1 1 1〉 textured target films. Angular distributions were determined through collection of the sputtered material on hemicylindrical aluminium films followed by RBS quantification of the collected material. The sputtered distributions from cluster bombardment of non-textured targets were found to be substantially more isotropic than the distributions stemming from atomic bombardment. This rules out the non-linear, presumably spike-produced, component to be caused by an outward directed jet of material. Distributions sputtered from a heavily textured sample show the amount of material preferentially emitted in the 〈1 1 0〉 directions to be linear in the number of atoms in the cluster, hence showing that the linear and non-linear yield components are additive.