Mechanism of emission of Si I, Si II, and Si III from Si which is ion-bombarded in the presence of oxygen

The statistical model for the formation of sputtered excited states has been strongly tested by comparing theory with experiment for a newly obtained ensemble of yields of Si I, Si II, and Si III having internal energies of 5-54 eV. The Si target was bombarded with 30 keV Ar+ in the presence of O2 and may therefore be assumed to have had a prominent band gap. Because of this band gap, electron-exchange processes did not have to be considered. The agreement between theory and experiment was satisfactory over the entire span of internal energies. © 1983.