Molecular dynamics and binary collision modeling of the primary damage state of collision cascades

Abstract

Quantitative information on defect production in cascades in copper obtained from recent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations is compared to defect production information determined earlier with a model based on the binary collision approximation (BCA). The total numbers of residual defects, the fractions of them that are mobile, and the sizes of immobile clusters compare favorably, especially when the termination conditions of the two simulations are taken into account. A strategy is laid out for integrating the details of the cascade quenching phase determined by MD into a BCA-based model that is practical for simulating much higher energies and longer times than MD alone can achieve. The extraction of collisional phase information from MD simulations and the correspondence of MD and BCA versions of the collisional phase is demonstrated at low energy.