Abstract

The mathematical model of surface erosion during ion bombardment is considered, which is reduced into a non-linear wave equation. The solutions obtained by characteristic methods describe a wide class of erosion phenomena, such as the development of arbitrary surfaces, including spherical particles, formation of edges, competition of modes showing up during the uptake of smaller inhomogeneities, and so on. Lateral views of spherical particles and sine waves for various amplitude/wavelength ratios and angles of bombardment are calculated to demonstrate applications of obtained solutions and their extrapolations onto real systems. Calculations are carried out for the Si − N2 + system, using the experimental dependence of the sputtering yield on the angle of bombardment as approximated by the Yamamura formula. The obtained results revealing good agreement with literature and original experimental data may find use in SIMS depth profiling and micro-technology.

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