SUMMARY OF THE THEORY OF THE PREFERENTIAL SPUTTERING OF ALLOYS.

Abstract

Preferential sputtering of alloys arises from mass differences, chemical binding differences and bombardment-induced gibbsian segregation. The relations underlying bombardment-induced gibbsian segregation take into account the fact that the steady state composition of the outermost atom layer is governed by mass and chemical binding effects but that of the second atom layer is governed by segregation such that the composition is depressed (for the component subject to segregation) by a factor K.