Stiffening U, Mo and Nb inter-atomic potentials for molecular dynamics simulations of collision cascades

Material irradiation by neutrons creates several energetic primary knock-on atoms (PKA) throughout the material. These energetic PKAs cause local collision cascades resulting in localized damage to the material by producing several interstitial atoms and vacancies. Modeling the ensuing collision cascades properly is an important step in a multi-scale model for quantifying the irradiation damage of a material. Molecular Dynamics (MD) is an appropriate tool to understand the individual cascade dynamics and defect formation in the energy range of 100 eV to several tens of keV