On the mechanism of cratering on solid surfaces exposed to an intense charged particle beam

Abstract

A physical mechanism of cratering on the surface of solid targets exposed to intense charged particle fluxes is suggested. According to this mechanism, the craters form due to surface gravitational waves and Richtmyer-Meshkov instability of the plasma torch free surface [1–4]. The crater sizes and shapes predicted theoretically agree well with experimental observations. It is shown that the stresses arising in the target are the highest under the crater, which explains the localization of structure modification observed in the experiments.