State of the sputtering process in which important operational and analytical parameters are unchanging over a meaningful timescale.
Note: Generally, steady state and stoichiometric sputtering are equivalent but, in profiling dilute
delta layers in semiconductors, for example, the sputtering can be at a steady state while the constituents being studied are not being sputtered in their stoichiometric ratio.
See also: stoichiometric sputtering
Source:
PAC, 2020, 92, 1781. 'Glossary of methods and terms used in surface chemical analysis (IUPAC Recommendations 2020)' on page 1814 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0404)