Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Time Evolution of Irradiation Induced Defects

We present here molecular dynamics simulations of collision cascades in various metals irradiated with ions having the initial kinetic energy of 500 eV. We find that although during the collision cascade some regions of the sample become amorphous, after the thermal spike, the crystal starts to recrystallize. The multiple vacancy clusters tend to break into smaller fragments and to migrate towards the surface, leaving behind only a small number of defects