Excited atom emission from metals under ion bombardment

In this paper the available models of excited atom emission from metals under ion bombardment are analysed and a new approach to solving the problem of finding the sputtered atom excitation probability is offered. At distances between a metal and an atom less than some critical distance the ‘metal-sputtered atom’ system is considered adiabatically. At the larger distances interaction between the metal and the atom is considered in terms of a weak perturbation which can excite the valence electron of the atom. The calculations of the probability of sputtered Al and Cu atom excitation and the radiation intensity for a number of spectral lines of these elements have been carried out.