Mechanisms of the boron carbide and boron nitride preferred sputtering by low energy ions bombardment

The ion irradiation of BN and B4C leads to enriching of the materials with the lighter component - borons as the experiment shows . With a view to explain this effect sputtering of BN and B4C under the irradiation by the He+ and Ar+ ions with the energy E0=0,5-5 keV has been calculated with computer modelling and the real structure of BN has been considered. In the case of B4C the calculations have been carried with Monte-Carlo code. It was shown that enriching of BN by boron may be accounted for building up the molecules N2 on the irradiated surface and their desorbing. The enriching of B4C with boron results from the difference of the binding energy of the B and C atoms. (author). 10 refs., 5 tabs