THE ATOMIC SPUTTERING FROM (111) SURFACES OF FCC METALS

New sputtering mechanisms are identified by means of computer simulation with the MARLOWE code, which give rise to the most pronounced structures in the angular distributions of ejection from a {111} gold surface. The influence of surface scattering of ejected recoils and of the trajectory refraction by the surface binding forces is identified. This allows the relation between the structure of the sputtering angular patterns and the anisotropies in the distribution of the directions of motion of cascade atoms to be emphasized. Transient focusing processes in the cascade development are found responsible for the major structures in the sputtering angular distributions. These distributions are strongly dependent on the sputtering energy. It is suggested that this prediction can be checked by energy- and angular-resolved sputtering measurements.