Desorption Induced by Electronic Transitions: Application to Ionic Compounds

The ejection of atoms and molecules from the surface of solids subject to the bombardment of energetic particles is a well known phenomenon that is employed routinely in laboratories and industrial plants for cleaning a surface, determining surface composition or ejecting material from a solid for deposition on adjacent targets. This emission, called sputtering, is the result of a direct momentum transfer from the incident particles to the atoms of the solid.