Can thermal spike calculations reproduce displacement cascades

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to compare the defects created by full displacement cascades and thermal spikes. The spikes are designed from cascade simulations to be of the same energies and of comparable sizes. Quantitatively, one finds that spikes create much less Frenkel pairs than cascades. However qualitatively, the distinction that appears in cascade simulations, between direct impact amorphization and sole creation of point defects is reproduced by thermal spikes calculations.

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