Range and Damage Effects of Tunnel Trajectories in a Wurtzite Structure

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Abstract
This article describes machine calculation results on some specific effects that the tunneling of energetic atoms in a crystal lattice enforces on the range and damage productivity of these atoms. Tunneling refers to the alignment of an energetic atom trajectory with the axes of straight, open cylindrical avenues in a crystal lattice. The stopping power for a tunnel trajectory is anomalously small and the range anomalously large. The particular case of 2‐keV beryllium and 6‐keV oxygen primary knock‐on atoms (PKA) in BeO (wurtzite structure) is treated. With respect to the inducement of tunneling, our results indicate that the initial azimuthal direction of a PKA in a plane parallel to the wurtzite basal plane is a more important parameter than the position of its starting position on a line normal to this plane. Oxygen PKA manifested quasitunnel behavior when the azimuthal angle was within ±10° of a tunnel direction and beryllium PKA manifested this behavior over a ±25° sector centered on a tunnel direction.