The role of sputtering and displacement damage in the electron SCRIBE process

Abstract
A calculation of the surface erosion and vacancy injection that is produced in thin-foil specimens under high-energy electron irradiation is described. Two distinct types of damage behaviour can be predicted which depend upon the relative magnitudes of the sputtering and vacancy-enhanced displacement cross-sections. When sputtering dominates, uniform thinning from the electron exit side of the foil is predicted, but when vacancy-enhanced displacement dominates, vacancy injection is predicted.