Size effect on electronic sputtering of LiF thin films

Abstract

Electronic sputtering in polycrystalline LiF thin film by 120MeV Ag25+ is investigated. The sputter yields of Li and F for the different thicknesses (10–265nm) of films are measured with online elastic recoil detection analysis technique. A reduction in sputter yield, from ∼2.3×106 to 2.2×104 atoms/ion, is observed with increase in the film thickness. The trend in the experimental results can be explained in terms of size effect in thin film following inelastic thermal spike model. The confinement of energy in the film having smaller grains and lower thickness results in higher temperature causing higher sputtering yield.