Ion irradiation tolerance of graphene as studied by atomistic simulations

TL;DR

This study uses atomistic simulations to show that graphene remains mechanically stable under high irradiation damage, supporting its use as a durable window material in high-energy ion systems.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates, through atomistic simulations, that graphene can tolerate high levels of irradiation damage without mechanical failure, and introduces a simple model to estimate damage levels.

Findings

Graphene remains stable despite high vacancy concentrations.

A simple model can estimate irradiation damage thresholds.

Graphene's robustness makes it suitable for ion beam applications.

Abstract

As impermeable to gas molecules and at the same time transparent to high-energy ions, graphene has been suggested as a window material for separating a high-vacuum ion beam system from targets kept at ambient conditions. However, accumulation of irradiation-induced damage in the graphene membrane may give rise to its mechanical failure. Using atomistic simulations, we demonstrate that irradiated graphene even with a high vacancy concentration does not show signs of such instability, indicating a considerable robustness of graphene windows. We further show that upper and lower estimates for the irradiation damage in graphene can be set using a simple model.