Electronic stopping power threshold of sputtering in yttrium iron garnet

To study the sputtering induced by the electronic stopping power dE/dx, single crystals of yttrium iron garnet Y3Fe5O12(or YIG) have been irradiated at room temperature with 195 MeV 86Kr, 400 MeV 181Ta and 150 MeV 238U ions beam. The number of sputtered iron and yttrium atoms collected upon aluminium foil placed in front of the target was measured using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) with a 2 MeV 4He Beam. The experimental results show that the electronic stopping power threshold of sputtering Tsin this garnet is 16 ± 3keV. This value is four times higher than the electronic stopping power threshold damage creation Tein the same range of velocity ions. The sputtering yield increases linearly within the experimental errors with dE/dx. Moreover, the sputtering is non-stoichiometric.