Microscopic insights into the sputtering of Ag{111} induced by C ₆₀ and Ga bombardment

Molecular dynamics computer simulations have been utilized to compare the differences in the mechanism of sputtering of Ag{111} by kiloelectronvolt Ga and C ₆₀ projectiles. The calculated kinetic energy distributions of Ag monomers and Ag ₂ dimers compare favorably with experimental results. The damage caused by the C ₆₀ particle left in the sample is less than the depth of material that the next impinging C ₆₀ particle would remove, thus supporting the preliminary experimental observations that molecular depth profiling is possible with C ₆₀ projectile beams.