An investigation of collision propagation in energetic ion initiated cascades in copper

Abstract

Using simple Binary Collision simulations of energetic ion initiated collision cascades, particles are considered to undergo a series of binary collisions with their surroundings. In Molecular Dynamics simulation it is difficult to even define what is meant by a collision as the interaction potentials are infinite in nature and consequently all particles are considered to interact with all other particles. By making a suitable definition of a collision for Molecular Dynamics we are able to compare the temporal behaviour of the number of collisions occurring during the propagation of a collision cascade between the two different calculation schemes. An investigation is made of the number of collisions as a function of time occurring in collision cascades. We compare these results to the time ordered version of MARLOWE. By making further definitions about what makes a many body collision, we further investigate the numbers of many body collisions occurring during a number of collision cascades.