Interactions of hyperthermal atomic beams with solid surfaces

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Abstract
Interactions of high‐energy supersonic atomic beams with solid surfaces and surface contaminants have been studied experimentally. In situ Auger electron spectroscopy indicates that hydrocarbons from the oil diffusion pump are the major contaminants. The hypothesis that a threshold energy exists for sputtering of these surface contaminants by an incident beam has been further tested. The dependence of the threshold energy on the incident‐beam angle has been examined for three different incident‐beam angles, namely 50°, 60°, and 70° from the surface normal. A simple correlating expression for Eth(μ,Θi) has been derived.