Excitation and relaxation of olivine after swift heavy ion impact

A multiscale model was developed to describe excitation and initial relaxation of an insulator after an impact of a swift heavy ion (SHI) decelerated in the electronic stopping regime. This model consists of a combination of three methods: (a) Monte Carlo simulations of the nonequilibrium kinetics of the electron subsystem of a solid at the femtosecond scale after the projectile passage. The complex dielectric function (CDF) is used to construct the cross sections for the MC model taking into account a collective response of the electron ensemble to excitation. (b) A molecular-kinetic approach describing further spatial spreading of electrons after finishing of ionization cascades up to hundred femtoseconds. And (c) molecular dynamics simulations of a reaction of the lattice on the excess energy transferred from the relaxing electron subsystem at the picosecond time scale. The dynamic structure factor (DSF) formalism is used to calculate the electron-lattice energy exchange in a general way which is valid for sub-picosecond timescales, beyond the phononic approximation of the lattice dynamics. The calculations were performed for 2 GeV Au ion in olivine, demonstrating a heating of the lattice up to 700 K in the nanometric scale picoseconds after the projectile passage.