Erosion of hydrocarbon films at room temperature due to argon ions and thermal atomic
hydrogen is investigated in a particle-beam experiment. Physical sputtering by the ions is
observed at energies 200 eV and reaches a yield of 0.5 at an ion energy of 800 eV. The
measured yields are in agreement with TRIM. SP computer simulations, and a threshold
energy of 58 eV is derived for physical sputtering. Erosion by simultaneous fluxes of argon
ions and thermal hydrogen atoms is observed at all energies investigated down to 20 eV …