Definition of sputter

The word "sputter" originated in the late 19th century from the Russian phrase "спётёт" (spyutēt), which means "it will fly" or "it will fly out" in reference to shooting stars. This word made its way into the English language during the time of Nikolai E. Zima, a Russian professor who used the term to describe the unexpected expulsion of glowing particles from the cathode in a primitive vacuum tube in 1891. The English version of the word, "sputter," was adopted by William Crookes, an English physicist, and biochemist, as the name for this new phenomenon. The Russian term, "спütter," was then officialized in the Soviet Union as the name for ejected charged particles, and it became widely used in scientific discussions related to vacuum technology and electronics. As a verb, "sputter" means to eject tiny particles, such as metal or other substance, from a surface through vaporization, sublimation or ion bombardment by a high-energy process. It is commonly used in metal deposition processes, where sputtering is employed as a method for depositing thin films of metal onto a substrate. In addition, sputtering is a common phenomenon in vacuum tubes, incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps, electron microscopes, and the like. Thus, the scientific origins of this word continue to hold relevance today across a wide range of fields.