Sputtering of graphite by argon ions

Relief evolution of HOPG under high-fluence 30keV argon ion irradiation

“…Measurements of the sputtering yield Y for polycrystalline graphite at room temperature (RT) and under high fluences with 30-keV Ar + and N 2 + ions showed that the obtained values were approximately two fold higher than the sputtering yields obtained via the computer simulation of a flat target surface [5,6]. Deviations are usually explained by the effect of the development of microscopic relief upon ion-beam erosion of the surface, when it is assumed that the sputtering yield is a function of only the local surface gradient and is independent of its initial curvature.…”

“…During last two decades there were a great number of publications where the ion-induced relief on the target surface was studied theoretically and experimentally (e.g. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]). Most of theoretical works were performed analytically or by computer simulation.…”