A comparison of inter-particle potentials for molecular dynamic simulation of the impact of collision cascades on xenon bubbles in plutonium dioxide.

Two alternative sets of interaction potentials of a xenon atom with the ionic environment in the plutonium dioxide crystal are compared with respect to the simulation of high-energy processes. It is shown that an increase in the hardness of the potentials at the interaction energies near and above 1000 eV significantly increases the fraction of energy transferred to xenon bubbles by collision cascades, also lowering the threshold energy of displacement of the xenon atom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]