Computer simulations of material ejection during C₆₀ and Ar_m bombardment of octane and β-carotene

Molecular dynamics (MD) computer simulations are used to investigate material ejection and fragment formation during keV C₆₀ and Ar_m (m = 60, 101, 205, 366, 872 and 2953) bombardment of organic solids composed from octane and β-carotene molecules at 0° and 45° impact angle. Both systems are found to sputter efficiently. For the octane system, material removal occurs predominantly by ejection of intact molecules, while fragment emission is a significant ejection channel for β-carotene. A difference in the molecular dimensions is proposed to explain this observation. It has been shown that the dependence of the sputtering yield Y on the primary kinetic energy E and the cluster size n can be expressed in a simplified form if represented in reduced units. A linear and nonlinear dependence of the Y/n on the E/n are identified and the position of the transition point from the linear to nonlinear regions depends on the size of the cluster projectile. The impact angle has a minor influence on the shape of the simplified representation.