Interaction of radiation with solids and elementary defect production

This book gives a comprehensive introduction into the interaction of various types of radiation with solids through atomic collisions and deals with the subsequent production of structural defects. Part I is devoted to the basic theories of two-body collisions, yielding the background for treating the interaction between radiation (i.e. energetic) particles and the constituents of solids. Part II deals with the actual interaction of energetic particles with condensed matter, not considering its regular structure. Here several aspects can be distinguished: the fate of the radiation particle which can be described by quantities such as energies, directions and ranges; the fate of an atom of the solid to which the radiation particle has directly transferred kinetic energy; and the fate of atoms of the solid to which kinetic energy of the radiation particle has been transferred indirectly via collision cascade processes. It is the latter two aspects which are associated with the production of elementary defects. In part III the topics of part II are extended to solids with regular atomic structure, which leads to interesting and even surprising effects. These effects have been used to increase our knowledge of solids during recent years. (Auth.)