The role of shock wave in low-energy recoil atom radiation damage

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Abstract
A “hydrodynamic” model of displacement-spike evolution is proposed. At moderate recoil energies when the mean free path for atomic collisions is about interatomic distance, the shockwave formation is assumed to be the main mechanism of energy dissipation. It was shown that for recoil energies less than 1.5–3 keV the problem may be reduced to the problem of shock-wave propagation in an ideal gas with an initial opposite pressure. Some possible applications of the model are discussed, including calculations of threshold displacement energy and damage function, space distribution of radiation defects, and phase transitions in the displacement spike.