1. Surface effects and statistical laws of defects in primary radiation damage: Tungsten vs. iron
- Author
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Kai Nordlund, Maria J. Aliaga, A. E. Sand, Maria J. Caturla, Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Física Aplicada, Física de la Materia Condensada, Grupo de Nanofísica, and Department of Physics
- Subjects
MOLECULAR-DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS ,Materials science ,DISLOCATION LOOPS ,POTENTIALS ,General Physics and Astronomy ,chemistry.chemical_element ,02 engineering and technology ,Tungsten ,FE ,114 Physical sciences ,01 natural sciences ,Molecular physics ,Power law ,Ion ,ENERGY ,Vacancy defect ,Física Aplicada ,0103 physical sciences ,Radiation damage ,Cluster (physics) ,Irradiation ,010306 general physics ,DISPLACEMENT CASCADES ,FOIL method ,Theory and models of radiation effects ,Metals and alloys ,Point defects and defect clusters ,COLLISION CASCADES ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,ION IRRADIATIONS ,chemistry ,METALS ,0210 nano-technology - Abstract
We have investigated the effect of surfaces on the statistics of primary radiation damage, comparing defect production in the bcc metals iron (Fe) and tungsten (W). Through molecular dynamics simulations of collision cascades we show that vacancy as well as interstitial cluster sizes follow scaling laws in both bulk and thin foils in these materials. The slope of the vacancy cluster size distribution in Fe is clearly affected by the surface in thin foil irradiation, while in W mainly the overall frequency is affected. Furthermore, the slopes of the power law distributions in bulk Fe are markedly different from those in W. The distinct behaviour of the statistical distributions uncovers different defect production mechanisms effective in the two materials, and provides insight into the underlying reasons for the differing behaviour observed in TEM experiments of low-dose ion irradiation in these metals. This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No. 633053. MJA thanks the UA for support through an institutional fellowship.
- Published
- 2016
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