Isotopic effects in the energy spectrum of molecules sputtered from carbon

Abstract

We investigate the translational and rovibrational energy spectra of sputtered molecules resulting from bombardment of hydrogen-supersaturated carbon by hydrogen isotopes H, D, and T at energies of 1–20eV using classical molecular dynamics simulations. The chemical erosion yields and mass spectra of sputtered molecules are found to be quite sensitive to the isotope mass of the impinging projectiles. However, the mean translational and rovibrational energies of the sputtered molecules are found to be nearly mass independent especially near the sputtering thresholds.