Incident angle dependence of electronic desorption and sputtering by energetic ions

It is shown that deviations of the dependence of sputtering yield on the incident angle, θ, from the standard (cos θ)⁻¹ dependence can be indicative of a depth dependence in the net energy deposition in the surface region. Information about the sputter ejection mechanism is shown to be obtained only secondarily. We give expressions that allow one to relate the measured dependence of the yields on angle of incidence to the dependence of energy deposition on depth. This is used to analyze results for condensed gas sputtering and heavy ion desorption of organic molecular ions. This analysis indicates that the spatial distribution of excitations produced by the secondary electrons is important in determining these yields. This is also confirmed by observed differences in the yields for transmission and back-sputtering which is a closely related effect.