TRIM Input Form

With this form, you can use TRIM to calculate sputtering data for input values of your choice. The output will be in the form of a web page, but may take a few minutes to calculate.

Only a limited number of input values can be used here, just to give you an idea of the sort of data TRIM can calculate. The version of TRIM used here is our modification from the original, specifically designed to calculate sputtering with respect to astrophysically important materials (silicates, amorphous C, etc). The target is considered to be thick, so no particles will be transmitted through it. Also, the target has only one layer, of composition up to 4 elements.

Details of Projectile Atom or Ion

Chemical symbol of Projectile (e.g. Ar)
Impact Energy /eV
Impact Angle (0° = normal incidence)
Number of Projectile Trajectories to calculate

Details of Target

Name of Target Material (e.g Silica)
Target Density /g cm^-3 (e.g. 2.65)
Surface Binding Energy /eV (typically <10 eV)
Bulk Binding Energy /eV (typically 0 eV)
Displacement Energy /eV (typically 20 eV)

Composition of Target (up to 4 elements, composition must add to 1.00)

Element	Symbol	Fraction
1.
2.
3.
4.

Clicking the button below will send the data you've just inputted to TRIM which will begin to calculate the sputtering information. Depending on your data values, this calculation can take quite a few minutes, and will eventually be given to you as a web page.

Note: this system isn't bug-proof - if you input silly numbers, the program is likely to get very confused and/or give you silly output(!). If you get a Unix-style error message above the output data, you've probably done someting wrong - go back and check you've filled in all the input fields correctly. One harmless error message that you might see is 'Underflow error' - which can be ignored - the OS just doesn't realise that very small numbers can be regarded as zero! There may also be problems if you attempt to use this form with a Mac. PCs and Unix versions of web browsers seem to work, but Macs don't. I'm working on this...

Also: Your network connection has a timeout setting of a few minutes. If TRIM hasn't finished its calculations before this timeout, you'll get an error message saying 'Document contains no data'. This generally occurs if (a) the computer is being used for lots of things (e.g. during U.K. working hours), (b) the number of trajectories is high, (c) the impact energy is high (leading to many knock-on collisions), and, especially, (d) if all of the above are true!