Defect production in collision cascades in elemental semiconductors and fcc metals

Journal Article · Wed Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1998 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.57.7556· OSTI ID:599136

Nordlund, K ^[1]; Ghaly, M; Averback, R S ^[1]; Caturla, M; Tarus, J ^[2]

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1. Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801 (United States)
2. Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 43, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki (Finland)

A comparative molecular dynamics simulation study of collision cascades in two elemental semiconductors and five fcc metals is performed to elucidate how different material characteristics affect primary defect production during ion irradiation. By using simulations of full 400 eV-10 keV collision cascades and contrasting the results on different materials with each other, we probe the effect of the mass, melting temperature, material strength, and crystal structure on the modification of the material due to the cascade. The results show that the crystal structure has a strong effect on many aspects of damage production, while other material characteristics are of lesser overall importance. In all materials studied, isolated point defects produced by the cascade are predominantly interstitials. In semiconductors, amorphous clusters are produced in the cascade core, whereas in metals most of the crystal regenerates, leaving only small vacancy-rich clusters. Large interstitial clusters found in a few events in the heavy metals were observed to form by the isolation of a high-density liquid zone during the recrystallization phase of a cascade. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}

• OSTI ID: 599136
• Journal Information: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter, Journal Name: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter Journal Issue: 13 Vol. 57; ISSN 0163-1829; ISSN PRBMDO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
AMORPHOUS STATE
CRYSTAL DEFECTS
ELEMENTS
FCC LATTICES
INTERSTITIALS
ION BEAMS
ION COLLISIONS
METALS
MOLECULAR DYNAMICS METHOD
PHYSICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SIMULATION
VACANCIES