If the energy (10 keV) of sputtering ion (Ar+) and the Material are known (TiO2) then how do you calculate or estimate the etch rate?
load SRIM code from: www.srim.org
and calculate
be careful with the density of your target.
SRIM will calculated sputtering, but it is notoriously inaccurate. You should treat such estimates as just that: estimates so that you know more or less what sort of value to expect. You always have to measure the crater depth in SIMS for any sort of accuracy.
On the other hand, SIMS itself is very rarely quantitative (because the ionisation coefficient can vary unpredictably over orders of magnitude, and because of the multitude of sputtering artefacts), and you have to go to quite a lot of trouble to be even semi-quantitative, so perhaps much of the time SRIM estimates are good enough!
Remember that sputtering rate is a strong function of the beam incidence angle.
In the case of sputtering a compound material like TiO2 you might also get preferential sputtering and a change of the stoichiometry at the target surface that will influence your ion yield measured with SIMS. The usual way for an experimental estimation of the total sputter yield of a given material are weight loss measurements or based on a quartz crystal micro balance.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Computer Communications (Networks)
- Simulators