Implementation of Automated Calculations of Sputtering and Scattering Characteristics during Ion Bombardment of a Solid Target

Abstract

For codes that simulate plasma–surface interactions, data on sputtering and particle reflection are required. Programs based on the binary collision approximation, such as SDTrimSP, are often used to obtain these data. This paper describes an auxiliary code developed to compute parameters of sputtered and scattered particles using SDTrimSP. The code can be used to run SDTrimSP and to process its output, including parameterization of sputtering yields and angular distributions of emitted particles as functions of incidence angle and initial energy. A comparison is given of methods for generating particle parameters with prescribed characteristic distributions: approximations by Legendre polynomials and a “butterfly”-type distribution. The applicability of representing the ion distribution over solid angle as the product of azimuthal and polar parts is also investigated. It is shown that Legendre polynomials better describe the obtained dependence of the sputtered particle yield on polar angle than the butterfly distributions. The results will be used in the development of a plasma–surface interaction module for a Monte Carlo code under development, intended to simulate impurity and working-gas transport in fusion devices.