Measurement of Magnesium Oxide Sputtering Yields by He and Ar Ions with a Low-Energy Mass-Selected Ion Beam System

Sputtering yields of magnesium oxide (MgO) by He and Ar ion bombardment were measured at relatively low incident energies with monochromatic ion beams generated by a low-energy mass-selected ion beam system. The measured sputtering yields and their ion incident energy dependence are found to be significantly different from those proposed by an earlier study based on numerical simulations [S. J. Yoon and I. Lee: J. Appl. Phys. 91 (2002) 2487], which seems to be the only source of MgO sputtering yield data widely available in the community for a relatively wide range of ion incident energies. Given the fact that MgO is extensively used as barrier coating of plasma display panel (PDP) cells and the amount of sputtered MgO in PDP cells can affect their discharge characteristics to a large extent, our results indicate that a fundamental revision is urgently needed for the study of MgO sputtering by noble gas ion bombardment.