ATOMIC-SCALE SIMULATION OF POINT-DEFECTS DIFFUSION AND REACTIONS USING TRANSPUTERS

The diffusion and agglomeration of point defects under high energy ele ctron irradiation have been examined by the means of parallel computin g. The whole process is divided into independent diffusion processes r unning in parallel and communications between these processes to repre sent the reactions. We have calculated the concentration of point defe cts and extended defects and the size of the latter, and compared them to the results of the chemical reaction rate theory and to experiment al data. Furthermore, we have shown that under high irradiation rates, small deviations due to the random nature of the process may, in some circumstances, lead to catastrophic situations as the result of enhan cement of the reactions due to local interactions.