Evidence against the "Coulomb explosion" model for desorption from insulator surfaces by slow highly charged ions

The "Coulomb explosion" model has been frequently invoked to explain that HCI induced sputtering- and secondary ion emission yields for certain (insulating) target surfaces dramatically increase with projectile charge state. Based on available experimental results and new theoretical estimates we will present evidence that "Coulomb explosion" can be ruled out as a dominant mechanism for potential sputtering of insulating surfaces, whereas all experimental features are found to be consistent with a model involving defect-mediated desorption.