Sputtering of thin benzene films by large noble gas clusters

Molecular dynamics computer simulations have been employed to investigate the sputtering process of a benzene (C₆H₆) monolayer deposited on Ag{1 1 1} induced by an impact of slow clusters composed of large number of noble gas atoms. The sputtering yield, surface modifications, and the kinetic energy distributions of ejected species have been analyzed as a function of the cluster size and the binding energy of benzene to the Ag substrate. It is shown that high- and low-energy components can be identified in the kinetic energy distributions of ejected molecules. The mechanistic analysis of calculated trajectories reveals that high-energy molecules are emitted by direct interaction with projectile atoms that are backreflected from the metal substrate. Most of the molecules are ejected by this process. Low-energy molecules are predominantly emitted by a recovering action of the substrate deformed by the impact of a massive cluster. The increase of the binding energy leads to attenuation of both high- and low-energy ejection channels. However, low-energy ejection is particularly sensitive to the variation of this parameter. The area of the molecular overlayer sputtered by the projectile impact is large and increases with the cluster size and the kinetic energy of the projectile. Also the size and the shape of this area are sensitive to the changes of the binding energy. The radius of the sputtered region decreases, and its shape changes from almost circular to a ring-like zone when the binding energy is increased. Some predictions about the perspectives of the application of large clusters in the organic secondary ion mass spectrometry are discussed.