Sputtering of HOPG under high-dose ion irradiation

The dependences of sputtering yield Y of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite under high fluences (1018–1019 ion/cm2) 30 keV N2+ irradiation at ion incidence angles from θ = 0 (normal incidence) to θ = 80° at room temperature (RT) and T = 400 °C have been measured to trace the radiation damage influence on angular behavior of sputtering yield. A difference has been found between angular dependences of sputtering yields at RT, when the irradiation leads to a high degree of disorder, and at temperatures, larger than the temperature Ta responsible for annealing the radiation damage at continuous ion bombardment.