Treatements of the emitted scondary ion during sputtering procces: Surface physics

In the present work we report an extended theoretical study to determine the charge state of the secondary particle emitted during the sputtering process. An investigation on the evolution of the ion-surface interaction along the trajectory of the moving particle away from the metal surface is highlighted. Accordingly, the charge exchange process between the emitted secondary particle and the solid surface is studied through out two mainly derived treatments, namely the semiclassical probability rate equation (based on the electron tunneling model) and the configurations interaction treatment. In the semiclassical probability rate equation we assumed that the occupation of the atomic level of the emitted secondary ions on leaving the solid surface can be changed following two competing processes of resonance charge exchange while all the electronics excitations are assumed to dissipate rapidly.