Probability of ionization of sputtered particles as a function of their energy: Part I: Negative Si ions

In this study we have investigated how the probability of ionization of sputtered Si atoms to form negative ions depends on the energy of the atoms. We have determined the ionization probability from experimental SIMS energy distributions using a special experimental technique, which included de-convolution of the energy distribution with an instrumental transmission function, found by separate measurements.We found that the ionization probability increases as a power law ∼E^0.677 for particles sputtered with energies of 0-10 eV, then becomes a constant value (within the limits of experimental error) for particles sputtered with energies of 30-100 eV. The energy distributions of Si⁻ ions, measured under argon and cesium ion sputtering, confirmed this radical difference between the yields from low and high-energy ions.To explain these results we have considered ionization mechanisms that are different for the low energy atoms (<10 eV) and for the atoms emitted with higher energy (>30 eV).     

The peculiarities of the low-energy ion scattering by polycrystal targets

In the present work, experimental and computer simulation studies of low-energy (E₀ = 80-500 eV) Cs⁺ ions scattering on Ta, W, Re target surfaces and K⁺ ions scattering on Ti, V, Cr target surfaces have been performed for more accurate definition of mechanism of scattering, with a purpose of evaluation of an opportunity of use of slow ions scattering as a tool of surface layers analysis. The choice of the targets was based on the fact that the ratios of atomic masses of target atoms and ions μ = m₂/m₁ were almost the same for all cases considered and greater than 1 (direct mass ratio) however, the difference of binding energies of target atoms in the cases of Cs⁺ and K⁺ scattering was almost twice as much. It has been noticed that the dependencies of the relative energy retained by scattering ions at the maximum of energy distribution versus the initial energy E_m/E₀ (E₀) have a similar shape in all cases. The relative energy retained by scattering ions increases while the initial energy of incidence ions decreases. The curves are placed above each other relative to the binding energies of target atoms, to show what this says about the influence of binding energy on a process of scattering of low-energy ions. The correlation between value of energy change maintained by an ion for different values of E₀ in the case of scattering by targets with different masses of atoms and its binding energies is experimentally established. The contrary behavior of the E_m/E₀ (E₀) dependencies concerning the target atom binding energy quantity E_b for cases with direct (μ > 1) and inverse (μ < 1) mass ratio of colliding particles is established. The comparison of experimental energy distributions with calculated histograms shows that the binary collision approximation cannot elucidate the abnormally great shift in the maxima of relative energy distributions towards greater energy retained by scattering ions.     

Reactive scattering of a supersonic oxygen atom beam O+ICl

Reactive scattering of O atoms with ICl molecules has been studied at an initial translational energy E = 40 kJ mol^-1 using a supersonic beam of O atoms seeded in He and at E = 15 kJ mol^-1 using O atoms seeded in Ne. Velocity distributions of OI product were measured by cross-correlation time-of-flight analysis. Full contour maps of the differential reaction cross-section have been obtained which show peaking almost equally in the forward and backward directions at both initial translational energies. The product translational energy distributions are consistent with a long-lived O-I-Cl collision complex dissociating via a loose transition state. The stability of the O-I-Cl complex is attributed to the low electronegativity of the central I atom compared with the peripheral atoms. This electronegativity ordering rule also determines the stability of the intermediates in the other reactions of oxygen atoms with halogen molecules. The mild peaking of the product angular distributions for O + ICl and IBr indicates that collision complexes have quite modest collision angular momenta L ～ 40 ? corresponding to impact parameters b ～ 1·4 Å and that the angular momentum of the OI molecule in the loose transition state may be approximately half the product orbital angular momentum.     

Intermediate mass fragments emitted in the reaction Ag+14N at 100, 160 and 250 MeV bombarding energy

The fragments produced in the reaction between a ¹⁴N beam of various energies and a natural Ag target have been studied. The atomic numbers of the fragments have been identified up to Z = 17 by means of a E-ΔE counter telescope. The cross sections, the kinetic energy distributions as well as the angular distributions have been measured for each atomic number. The kinetic energy distributions show two components: a high-energy component (quasi-elastic), prevailing at angles close to the grazing angles and for atomic numbers close to Z = 7, and a low-energy component (relaxed), at energies close to the Coulomb repulsion energy, present at all angles and for all the Z. A detailed study of the relaxed components of the kinetic energy seems to account for both them means and the widths of these distributions on a purely statistical basis. The cross sections of the relaxed components appear to be quite large at low Z and to decrease rapidly to a fairly constant value in the region of 10 ≦ Z ≦ 17. A marked even-odd alternation in the cross sections is observed. The angular distributions are strongly forward peaked for Z < 7. For Z > 7 the forward peaking decreases rapidly until, for Z > 13, the limiting form 1/sinθ is attained. Evidence for the existence of a diffusion process along the mass asymmetry coordinate is discussed.     

Evidence of non-statistical structures in the elastic and inelastic scattering of58Ni+58Ni and58Ni+62Ni and intermediate dinuclear states

Excitation functions and angular distributions of⁵⁸Ni+⁵⁸Ni and⁵⁸Ni+⁶²Ni scattering at energies just above the Coulomb barrier have been measured aroundθ _cm=90° in energy stepsΔE _cm=0.25 MeV fromE _cm ? 110 MeV toE _cm ? 120 MeV for⁵⁸Ni+⁵⁸Ni and fromE _cm ? 110 MeV toE _cm ? 118 MeV for⁵⁸Ni+⁶²Ni. Evidence for structure of non-statistical character has been found in the angle-summed excitation functions; this evidence is corroborated by the analysis of the angular distributions. This is the first time that non-statistical structure in elastic and inelastic scattering is reported with high confidence level for this mass and excitation energy ranges. Attempts are presented to understand the nature of this structure, including the presence of intermediate dinuclear states and virtual states in a potential well.     

The quark condensate in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions

We compute the modification of the quark condensate <ˉq q> in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions and estimate the 4-volume, where the quark condensate is small (<ˉqq>/<ˉqq>⁰≤ 0.1–0.3) using hadron phase-space distributions obtained with the quark-gluon string model. As a function of the beam energy the 4-volume rises sharply at a beam energy E^lab/A ≃ (2–5) GeV, remains roughly constant up to beam energies ≃ 20 GeV and rises at higher energies. At low energies the reduction of the condensate is mainly due to baryons, while at higher energies the rise of the 4-volume is due to the abundant mesons produced. Based on our results we expect that moderate beam energies on the order of 10 GeV per nucleon are favourable for studying the restoration of chiral symmetry in a baryon-rich environment in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Received: 4 December 1997 / Revised version: 31 July 1998     

Correlation between energies and angles of α-particles emitted in thermal-neutron fission of U

The energy distribution and yields of the α-particles emitted in the thermal-neutron fission of ²³⁵U were measured with the same detector system for the cases when the average angles between fragments and α-particles were 90°, 46°, 27° and 11°. The data were analysed by the Monte Carlo method to take into account the effects of the finite size of the source and the various detectors, and the following results were obtained: (i) Even at small angles with respect to the fission axis the yield of the α-particles is about 2–3 % of the yield at 90°, and does not go to zero as would be expected for a true Gaussian angular distribution of a variance which fits the data around 90°. (ii) At these angles where most of the α-particle yield belongs to the non-Gaussian component, the α-particle energy distribution has a significantly higher most probable energy but the FWHM of the energy distribution is not significantly different, (iii) The rms width σ_θ of the Gaussian angular distribution is found to increase for very high (E_α > 20 MeV) α-particle energies and also to a lesser extent for very low (E_α < 15 MeV) energies. The origin of the yield of the α-particles at small angles, and the dependence of the rms width σ_θ on the energy are discussed.     

Variation of total kinetic energy and mass distributions in the fusion-fission reaction of 16O,19F + 209Bi at near barrier energies

Fission fragment mass and energy distributions and their correlations have been measured for the ¹⁶O and ¹⁹F + ²⁰⁹Bi reactions over a wide range of excitation energies ( E ^* = 30-50 MeV). It is observed that in the case of ¹⁶O + ²⁰⁹Bi reaction, the average total fragment kinetic energy, <TKE> is nearly independent of the bombarding energy. However, in the case of ¹⁹F + ²⁰⁹Bi reaction, the average total kinetic energy of the fission fragments shows a peaking behaviour near the barrier. The variation in <TKE> at near barrier energies in the ¹⁹F + ²⁰⁹Bi system seems to be correlated with corresponding strong variation in the variance of the fragment mass distribution. The present results may imply certain dynamical effects leading to compact scission configurations in the fission of ¹⁹F + ²⁰⁹Bi system at near barrier bombarding energies. Received: 9 April 2001 / Accepted: 26 May 2001     

Features of the energy distribution of secondary particles upon the ion bombardment of graphite

The secondary emission of carbon atoms from the (0001) plane of graphite nanocrystallites bombarded with argon ions with energies of 1 and 10 keV and the incidence angle α = 45° is investigated. The unusual oscillating energy distributions of secondary C⁺ ions with main maxima E _max in the range of 40–60 eV and peaks corresponding to the energies E ₁ ≈ 20, 30, 70, 80, and 100 eV have been revealed. The C⁺ ion yield decreases, the energy spectrum increases, and the maximum E _max shifts to larger energies E ₁ with increasing emission angle (with respect to the normal to the surface). The secondary-ion emission from the (0001) face of graphite is numerically simulated with allowance for the charge exchange of secondary ions to obtain a qualitative explanation of the observed results.     

A channeled ion energy loss study of the surfactant-mediated growth of Ge on Si(100)

Scattered ion energy distribution for the system Sb/Ge/Si(100) are studied using transmission ion channeling. One monolayer (ML) of Sb was deposited on the clean Si(100) surface prior to deposition of one ML of Ge at 350°C. Experimental energy distributions for the <100>, {110}, and “random” directions are compared with simulated energy distributions obtained by overlapping trial absorbate positions (relative to bulk positions) with ion positions in the channel at the beam-exit surface. Ion positions and energies are calculated via a Monte Carlo simulation of channeling that incorporates a model for channeled ion energy loss. We find that the energy distributions clearly show that the surfactant, Sb, moves to the surface upon Ge deposition at 350°C. Further, our results are consistent with the sites recently reported by Grant et al. [Surf. Sci. 316 (1994) L1088], for Sb deposited on Ge/Si(100), namely, tilted Sb dimers on Ge asymmetrically displaced from bulk sites.     

Energy and angular momentum transfers in equilibrium and pre-equilibrium 158Gd(α, xn) reactions

Neutron time-of-flight spectra and γ-ray multiplicities were measured in coincidence with discrete γ-rays for specific exit channels in the ¹⁵⁸Gd(α, xn) reactions at E_α = 70 MeV. The neutron energy spectra and angular distributions were analysed in terms of equilibrium and non-equilibrium decay processes. Significant emission of non-equilibrated neutrons was found, amounting to about 40 %, 25 % and 15 % of the total neutron emission in the 4n, 5n and 6n exit channels, respectively. The corresponding average kinetic energies in this precompound phase were around 12, 8 and 4.5 MeV. The angular momentum carried away by the neutrons was found to be rather constant for all exit channels and on the average about 3? units. It is found that the total energy and angular momentum removed by the neutrons and γ-rays agrees within the experimental errors with the calculated values for the compound nucleus.     

Angular distributions of sputtered atoms for low-energy nitrogen irradiation of silicon

We studied the angular distributions of silicon and nitrogen atoms emitted from a Si target subjected to reactive sputtering by N ₂ ⁺ ions at primary energies of 0.5 and 2keV. The composition of the deposited material does not depend strongly on the substrate position. From a comparison with nonreactive sputtering, we show that the observed shift of the Si angular distribution is mainly due to the contribution of collision events occurring in the first monolayer. Contrary to the case of noble gas ions, the sharpness of the Si distribution depends on the N ₂ ⁺ energy. The behavior of the differential sputtering yield of silicon indicates that this effect is likely to be due to a loss of recoil atoms out of the preferential direction. A possible explanation of the observed phenomena consists in assuming an anisotropic emission of Si _x N _y radicals. This hypothesis is very attractive as it could satisfactorily explain the similarity we observed between the angular distributions of silicon and nitrogen.     

Possible evidence for heavy-ion-induced collective electron emission from solids

A peak has been observed for the first time in the angular distributions of low energy electrons (E_c<5 eV) emitted under heavy-ion bombardment of solids. The peak energy and angle coincide with the peak energy and angle predicted recently for collective electron emission in heavy-ion-solid collisions.     

Low-energy ion scattering by monatomic films

The angular and energy distributions of Cs⁺ and Xe⁺ ions scattered by monatomic crystalline films have been calculated via the molecular dynamics method in the scope of the multiparticle interaction mechanism. The calculated dependences of scattered heavy ions with a low initial energy E ₀ = 40 eV on the atomic mass, crystal lattice type, interatomic distance, and binding energy of the film atoms are discussed and compared with the experiment. The presented data can be used to predict the physical properties of a surface covered with a monatomic layer of foreign atoms during experimental surface studies based on the backscattering of ions with low initial energies.     

Scattering of Li+ from LEED characterized W(110) and Si (111) surfaces at energies between 2 and 20 eV

Energy and angular distributions of Li⁺ ions scattered from W(110) and Si(111) surfaces have been measured for a wide range of scattering angles and for beam energies between 2 and 20 eV. The collision process can be explained in terms of binary collisions with single surface atoms, if the influence of the attractive part of the interaction potential is taken into account. A square well approximation for the potential makes it possible to predict the form of the energy spectrum as well as the behaviour of the angular distribution of the scattered particles for both systems. The influence of adsorbed atoms and molecules on the scattering behaviour has been investigated. Exposure of the W surface to H₂, O₂ and CO shows that surface coverages exceeding 10% of a monolayer very drastically influence the scattering. The results from the clean surfaces indicate that sufficiently precise measurements of the energy spectra of the scattered particles can yield very detailed information about the form of the interaction potential. The form of the energy spectra also contains information as to the extent of vibrational excitation of the surface atoms.     

Accommodation coefficients for low-energy ions on metal surfaces

The interaction of low-energy ions (E = 3 to 100 eV) with the surface of a solid cannot be treated in terms of gas dynamics. The scattering of particles at an energy of E _o > 20 eV may be explained in terms of binary collisions with the atoms of the target. The validity of the single collision model with free surface atoms for medium energies from 10 to 100 eV and even down to 1 eV was confirmed on the basis of both experimental and computational data. This paper describes experimental studies of the secondary ion emission from the (100) and (110) faces of a Mo single crystal and both experimental and theoretical studies of alkaline ion accommodation coefficient on polycrystalline Mo within the energy range E = 3 to 50 eV with a varying direction of the primary ion beam from normal to the glancing angle of incidence (ρ = 0 to 75°). On the basis of the retarding potential method using a spherical condenser whose central electrode was the target, we measured the energy distribution of secondary ions. Calculations have been performed for the energy of scattered ions and the high energy portion of accommodation coefficient on the basis of single and double binary collisions using the Born-Mayer potential and taking into consideration the influence of adsorption forces at the surface of the target.     

Focusing of atoms sputtered from the (001) Ni surface for the Gaussian distribution of ejected atoms

Angular distributions of atoms sputtered from the (001) Ni surface for the Gaussian initial angular distributions of ejected atoms have been studied by the molecular dynamics method using computer simulation. Focusing of ejected atoms has been observed for the relatively wide initial distributions for the emission stage, while the polar angular defocusing has been observed for the narrow distributions. The shift character for the maximum of the polar angular distribution of sputtered atoms being the energy differential has been found to change from monotonous to nonmonotonous with an increase in the initial width of the distribution.     

Thermal hard-photons probing multifragmentation in nuclear collisions around the fermi energy

Hard-photon (E _γ>30 MeV) emission originating from photon-neutron bremsstrahlung collisions is investigated in four different heavy-ion reactions at intermediate bombarding energies (³⁶Ar+¹⁹⁷Au, ¹⁰⁷Ag, ⁵⁸Ni, ¹²C at 60 A MeV) coupling the TAPS photon spectrometer with two charged-particle multidetectors covering more than 80% of the solid angle. The hard-photon spectra of the three heavier targets result from the combination of two distinct exponential distributions with different slope parameters, a results which deviates from the behaviour expected for hard-photon production just in first-chance proton-neutron collisions. The thermal origin of the steeper bremsstrahlung component is confirmed by the characteristics of its slope and angular distribution. Such thermal hard-photons convey undisturbed information of the thermodynamical state of hot and excited nuclear systems undergoing multifragmentation.     

Investigation of radiation-induced mixed interstitial configurations in a dilute nickel 1 at.% silicon alloy

Abstract

X-ray energy spectra induced by 1 MeV protons and the energy spectra of the backscattered protons have been examined in the <100> and <110> directions of Ni crystals containing 1 at.% Si. The channeling method was used to investigate interactions between the radiation-induced defects and the silicon atoms. From the measured minimum yields and from the shape of the angular scans the fraction of silicon atoms is determined, which are displaced into the <100> and <110> channels due to proton or helium irradiations and subsequent annealing treatments. In undamaged crystals about 98 % of the silicon atoms are on normal lattice sites. After irradiation a dose dependent fraction of the silicon atoms is displaced 0.05 nm away from the substitutional position indicating the formation of a mixed dumbbell consisting of one selfinterstitial atom and one silicon atom. However, the experimental data can also be interpreted by the assumption of a NiSi₂ complex, in which the silicon atoms are displaced 0.08 nm from the lattice site. Subsequent annealing from 50 K to 160 K does not change the configuration and the concentration of the silicon complexes. At room temperature the silicon atoms in the complex are positioned 0.04 nm from the lattice position. The silicon complexes were totally am ihilated at 400 K.