Abstract. The optimum energy and the type of sputtering inert gas (Ne, Ar, Kr or Xe) used to achieve maximum productivity of the sputtering process of elemental targets are assessed using the sputtering yield formula of Yamamura et al. [3]. The erosion efficiency η was found to have maximum at ion energy E of 7E_th (E_th is the threshold energy for sputtering). η_max exhibits oscillations with the atomic number Z₂ of the target and has values in the interval 0.4-4%. This efficiency is relatively high (η > 0.8η_max) for E between 3E_th and 20E_th which for most ion-target combinations corresponds to energies within the 50-1000 eV interval. The η_max values for a given target do not differ significantly for different inert gases. For Z₂ < 50 targets Ar provides sufficiently higher efficiency (within 20% compared with other inert gases) while for heavier targets Kr and Xe can have 40-70% higher efficiency than Ar.

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