On the beta decay-induced radiation damage

Abstract

The present work proposes the methods to calculate beta decay-induced atomic displacement damage, including the emitted electron-induced damage and the residual nucleus-induced damage using three-body kinematics. Compared with the standard Norgett-Robinson-Torrens (NRT) metric of the number of Displacements per Atom (DPA), the modified NRT proposed in the present work based on the definition of threshold displacement energy leads to 36% more DPA induced by the emitted electron of 56Mn beta decay. The example of 56Mn beta decay shows that the emitted electron-induced DPA is fewer than the DPA induced by the residual nucleus by a factor of 14. The residual recoil energy should be taken into account for elements such as iron, nickel, chromium, aluminum, and especially for silicon, whereas the maximum kinetic energy of beta decay residual is below the threshold of atomic displacement for tungsten.