Sputtering of cubic metal crystals by low-energy xenon-ions

Incident-angle dependence of deformation characteristics of aluminum surface under low-energy xenon-ion impact

“…To generate thrust, electric propulsion electrostatically accelerate xenon ions through molybdenum grids, which becomes a common form of spacecraft propulsion. However, when the ions fly outside the thruster, some collisions may happen with the screens because not all ions move out the thruster cleanly [7]. Due to the kinetic energy of energetic ions, these collisions will induce sputtering and further erosion.…”

“…A variety of theoretical methods such as empirical model [10,11] and analytical method [12,13] have been developed toward exploring the sputtering. However, these models require parameters from experiments and are unable to provide satisfactory description for low-energy ions [7,14]. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can be a powerful tool to explore electric propulsion with better accuracy for low-energy ion-crystal interactions.…”

“…Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can be a powerful tool to explore electric propulsion with better accuracy for low-energy ion-crystal interactions. For instance, Elliott et al [7] measured sputter yields of twelve different elemental targets under xenon-ion bombardment at normal incidence angles by performing atomistic simulations. Their results have shown the details of the low-energy sputter yield as a function of ion incidence angle, the kinetic energy distributions and probability density functions for the trajectories of sputtered atoms.…”