Absence of single critical dose for the amorphization of quartz under ion irradiation

In this work, we first simulated the amorphization of crystalline quartz under 50 keV 23Na ion irradiation with classical molecular dynamics (MD). We then used binary collision approximation algorithms to simulate the Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in channeling conditions (RBS-C) from these...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. Condensed matter 2018-01, Vol.30 (1), p.015403-015403
Main Authors: Zhang, S, Pakarinen, O H, Backholm, M, Djurabekova, F, Nordlund, K, Keinonen, J, Wang, T S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
amorphization of quartz
ion irradiation
molecular dynamics
Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in channelling conditions
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Summary:In this work, we first simulated the amorphization of crystalline quartz under 50 keV 23Na ion irradiation with classical molecular dynamics (MD). We then used binary collision approximation algorithms to simulate the Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in channeling conditions (RBS-C) from these irradiated MD cells, and compared the RBS-C spectra with experiments. The simulated RBS-C results show an agreement with experiments in the evolution of amorphization as a function of dose, showing what appears to be (by this measure) full amorphization at about 2.2 eV⋅atom−1. We also applied other analysis methods, such as angular structure factor, Wigner-Seitz, coordination analysis and topological analysis, to analyze the structural evolution of the irradiated MD cells. The results show that the atomic-level structure of the sample keeps evolving after the RBS signal has saturated, until the dose of about 5 eV⋅atom−1. The continued evolution of the SiO2 structure makes the definition of what is, on the atomic level, an amorphized quartz ambiguous.
ISSN:0953-8984
1361-648X
DOI:10.1088/1361-648X/aa9868