Charge‐State‐Enhanced Ion Sputtering of Metallic Gold Nanoislands

Abstract

AbstractExperimental results on the charge‐state‐dependent sputtering of metallic gold nanoislands are presented. Irradiations with slow highly charged ions of metallic targets were previously considered to show no charge state dependent effects on ion‐induced material modification, since these materials possess enough free electrons to dissipate the deposited potential energy before electron‐phonon coupling can set in. By reducing the size of the target material down to the nanometer regime and thus enabling a geometric energy confinement, a possibility is demonstrated to erode metallic surfaces by charge state related effects in contrast to regular kinetic sputtering.