The Roles of Energetic Displacement Cascades in Ion Beam Modifications of Materials

Abstract

The roles of energetic displacement cascades are ubiquitous in the fields of radiation damage and ion beam modifications of materials. These roles can be described on two time scales. For the first, which lasts ≈ 10^-11 s, small cascade volumes are characterized by large supersaturations of point defects, structural disorder, and energy densities in excess of some tenths of eV's per atom. During this period, the system can be driven far from equilibrium with significant rearrangement of target atoms and the production of Frenkel pairs. Experimental studies of ion beam mixing in conjunction with molecular dynamics computer simulations, have contributed largely toward understanding these dynamic cascade processes. At later times, the microstructure of the material evolves as cascades begin to overlap, or at elevated temperatures, point defects migrate away from their nascent cascades. It will be shown how the primary state of damage in cascades influences this microstructural development. Examples involving radiation-enhanced diffusion and ion-induced amorphization will be discussed.