Electronic Sputtering of Nanodimensional Hydrogenated Amorphous Carbon and Copper Oxide Thin Films

Electronic sputtering of carbon from hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H/Si) film and oxygen from copper oxide (CuDlSi) film at different electronic energy loss (S_e) value is reported. The sputtering is monitored by online elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) technique and the yield (sputtered atomslincident ion) is determined. Two important results emerging out from this study are: (i) much higher yield of C and O from a-C:H and CuD films as compared to conventional kinetic sputtering and (ii) sputtering yield increases with increase in S_e in both the cases. These observations are understood on the basis of thermal spike model of ion-solid interaction.