Production bias and void swelling in the transient regime under cascade damage conditions

Abstract Molecular dynamics (MD) studies of collision cascades have firmly established that, in addition to clusters of vacancies, clusters of self-interstitial atoms (SIAs) are formed within the cascade volume during the thermal spike phase of a cascade. These clusters are formed in a segregated fashion such that the vacancy-rich core is surrounded by SIA clusters. At temperatures above stage V the vacancies evaporate from the vacancy cluster and diffuse into the medium whereas the SIA clusters remain thermally stable at temperatures even above the peak swelling temperature. This asymmetry in the production of free and mobile vacancies and SIAs gives rise to a production bias. Some of the vacancies evaporating from the vacancy-rich core annihilate at the SIA clusters surrounding it and others escape into the medium. It is this escaping fraction of vacancies which determines the strength of the production bias. Diffusion calculations have been performed to estimate the magnitude of this escaping fraction ...