Anomalously high yield of doubly charged Si ions sputtered from cleaned Si surface by keV neutral Ar impact

The energy spectra of positively charged and neutral species ejected from the Si(1 1 1) surfaces by keV Ar impact have been measured by means of a combined technique of the time-of-flight (TOF) analysis with the multi-photon resonance ionization spectroscopy (MPRIS). It is shown that positively charged species of Si+, Si2+ and SiO+ are ejected from the as-cleaned 7x7 surface by 11 keV Ar impact. It is also shown that Ar sputter cleaning of the as-cleaned 7x7 surface for 14 min at the flux of 2x1013/cm2s removes completely the oxygen impurity and the yields of Si2+ is comparable to that of Si+. Moreover, the ionization probability of Si atoms sputtered is shown to be expressed as an exponential function of the inverse of their velocity. The production mechanism for the doubly charged Si ion is discussed based on the L-shell ionization of Si atoms due to quasi-molecule formation in the collisions of the surface atoms with energetic recoils and subsequent Auger decay of the L-shell vacancy to doubly ionized Si ions