The original techniques of measurement and analysis of parameters of low-frequency fluctuations of field-emission current of metal-film systems developed earlier have been used in this work to measure sputtering coefficients of carbon films, (coverage from 1 to 4 monolayers) on Fe, Nb, Ta, and U. Directly measured values were amplitudes of abnormal fluctuations of field-emission current DeltaI(n) caused by hits of individual bombarding ions at the film. Calculations of sputtering coefficients Y-f have been carried out using analytical expressions of the, theoretical model developed. Sputtering coefficients of carbon films by ions H+ and He+ with energy in the range of 2.0-10.0 keV have been measured. Energy dependencies Y-f for fixed theta of each type of ion have been determined. Besides, for certain fixed energy values E-i of each ion type dependency, Y-f versus theta has been determined (where theta is the quantity of monolayers). Measured values Y-f, in all cases,. are significantly higher than that of bulk carbon. Having used another original technique combining ion-field microscopy and precision measurements of current and/or light characteristics of local areas of ion-field images, energy thresholds E-th of the beginning of sputtering of carbon films on metal surfaces have been determined. Energy distributions Y-f for various theta in the near-threshold energy region have been measured. (C) 2003 American Vacuum Society.