Electronic effects in high-energy radiation damage in tungsten

TL;DR

This study uses advanced molecular dynamics simulations to explore how electronic effects influence radiation damage in tungsten, revealing that electron-phonon interactions reduce damage and accelerate recovery.

Contribution

It introduces a coupled two-temperature molecular dynamics model to incorporate electronic effects in high-energy radiation damage simulations in tungsten.

Findings

Electron-phonon coupling reduces damage in molten regions.

Faster damage relaxation due to electronic effects.

Smaller final damage levels observed with coupled model.

Abstract

Although the effects of the electronic excitations during high-energy radiation damage processes are not currently understood, it is shown that their role in the interaction of radiation with matter is important. We perform molecular dynamics simulations of high-energy collision cascades in bcc-tungsten using the coupled two-temperature molecular dynamics (2T-MD) model that incorporates both the effects of electronic stopping and electron-phonon interaction. We compare the combination of these effects on the induced damage with only the effect of electronic stopping, and conclude in several novel insights. In the 2T-MD model, the electron-phonon coupling results in less damage production in the molten region and in faster relaxation of the damage at short times. These two effects lead to significantly smaller amount of the final damage at longer times.