Formation of frenkel pairs in electron irradiated copper

Abstract

A computer simulation has been performed to study the creation of Frenkel pairs in electron irradiated copper at 0 K and 293 K. The average radius of Frenkel pairs has been calculated as a function of the recoil energy of the primary knock-on atom. From this, the mean radius of Frenkel pairs created by electron radiation of given energy has been calculated. At the end of the focused collision sequence which generates the interstitial the local transient heating produces defect jumps which slightly reduce the mean radius of the Frenkel pairs. The direction of these jumps allow an approximate determination of the vacancy-interstitial attraction range, which is compared with experimental data on the recombination radius.