Nonlinear effects in the sputtering of gallium arsenide and silicon by bismuth cluster ions

An experimental study on the influence of the energy and the number of atoms in the bombarding ions Bi$^+_n$ ($n$ = 1–4) on the sputter yield of GaAs was carried out. It was shown that the specific sputter yield $Y_{sp}$ non-additively increases with increasing $n$ and specific kinetic energy $E_{sp}$ per an atom in the bombarding ion, and the efficiency of energy transfer from bombarding ions to target atoms also increases with increasing $n$. A comparison was made with the previously obtained results for Si targets.