Ion velocity, charge state and substrate dependent electronic sputtering of fullerene

In order to understand electronic sputtering phenomenon, a systematic study is performed by bombarding fullerene (C-60) thin films deposited on Si and glass substrates with Au and Ag ions of different energies. The incident ion velocity, charge state and substrate dependent electronic sputtering yield (sputtered atoms/ion) of C is measured on-line by elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) technique in the three different sets of studies. The salient features observed in these experiments are that the yield is quite high (similar to10(3) atoms/ion and above), which is influenced by the above-mentioned three physical parameters. Slower ion having same electronic energy deposition (Se) as compared to its high velocity counterpart erodes more. C-60 films deposited on more insulating substrate (electrically and thermally: glass) shows higher sputtering yield as compared to those deposited on Si substrate. However, no charge state effect was observed in the electronic sputtering yield within the detection limit of the set up. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.