Our new paper on the radiation damage of beryllium is now available:

• M.L. Jackson, P.C.M. Fossati and R.W. Grimes, “Simulations of threshold displacement in beryllium”, Journal of Applied Physics, 120 (2016) 045903 doi:10.1063/1.4958974.

Atomic scale molecular dynamics simulations of radiation damage have been performed on beryllium to calculate the threshold displacement energy. A geodesic projection of displacement directions was used to investigate the orientation dependence of the threshold displacement energy with respect to crystallographic direction with unprecedented spatial resolution. It was found that the directionally averaged probability of displacement increases from 0 at 35 eV, with the energy at which there is a 50 % chance of a displacement occurring is 70 eV and asymptotically approaching 1 for higher energies. This is however strongly directionally dependent with a 50% probability of displacement varying from 35 – 120 eV, with low energy directions corresponding to nearest neighbour directions. A new kinetic energy dependent expression for the average maximum displacement of an atom as a function of energy is derived which closely matches the simulated data.