An Incremental Model for Defect Production upon Cascade Overlapping

An analytic incremental model is proposed to predict the defect production upon cascade overlapping. By resolving the coupled annealing events during cascade overlapping, this model handles cascade overlapping with multiple pre-existing defects of different sizes and number densities. The model is first parameterized and then applied to bcc-Fe. The proposed model satisfyingly reproduces the defect production obtained by molecular dynamics simulations with various radiation damage levels and defect cluster size distributions. The present model provides an essential description of the primary source of radiation damage, especially for high dose irradiation, and could be used in conjunction with reactive diffusion models for better understanding of radiation damage.