Study of atomic excitations in sputtering with the use of Be, B, and C targets

Solid targets of Be, B, and C have been bombarded with 80-keV ${\mathrm{Ar}}^{+}$ ions, and photon emission from sputtered particles has been studied. For beryllium, several strong BeI and BeII emission lines have been observed, and the photon intensities have been converted to relative level population data. Essentially no radiation could be detected with a boron target, and only weak molecular emission was observed for carbon. The results are discussed. They are in accordance with the ideas behind a newly proposed electron-pickup model for atomic excitation in sputtering, but seem not to support a statistical (or binary-collision) model.