V. Konoplev et al., EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON THE BULK ATOMIC RELOCATION IN LOW-ENERGY COLLISION CASCADES IN SILICON - A MOLECULAR-DYNAMICS STUDY, Radiation effects and defects in solids, 133(3), 1995, pp. 179-192
The production of damage in a Si lattice by internally starting 100 eV
self-recoils has been studied using a MD simulation. Different initia
l lattice temperatures below the Debye temperature for Si have been co
nsidered. The number of stable atomic displacements and the amount of
atomic mixing increase with the initial target temperature. The increa
se with temperature of atomic mixing is nonlinear -appreciable changes
lake place between 300 and 500 K, while the difference between the am
ount of mixing corresponding to 0 and 300 K is negligibly small. The s
ize of the cascade zone in which stable atomic displacements occur dou
bles itself for temperature changes between 0 and 300 K, with a value
for 500 K lying in between. This nonmonotonic variation with the initi
al target temperature of the size of the cascade zone may have its ori
gin in the correlation between the initial direction of motion of the
starting recoil and the directions of thermal velocities of the neighb
ouring atoms around this recoil.