Sputtering of carbon using hydrogen ion beams with energies of 60-800Â eV

This article presents the result of a study on the sputtering of carbon films by low-energy hydrogen ions. In particular, the etching rate and surface roughness were measured. The range of energies where the sputtering switches from pure chemical to a combination of chemical and physical mechanisms was determined. It is shown that Sigmund's theory for ion etching does not work well for fields of energy less than 150 eV and that it accurately describes the dependence of a sputtering coefficient on ion energy for energies greater than 300 eV. A strong smoothing effect for the surface of carbon film was also found. This result is interesting in itself and for its significance for the manufacture of super-smooth surfaces for X-ray applications.