Molecular dynamics study of structural changes versus deposited energy dose in a sodium borosilicate glass

The accumulation of cascades modeled by molecular dynamics in a sodium borosilicate glass allowed us to simulate the evolution of various macroscopic and structural properties up to the level of a stabilization plateau for the highest deposited nuclear energy doses. Marples’ model was used to fit the glass volume expansion to the deposited energy dose, giving the damaged volume per projectile. The volume parameter from this model approximates the cascade core volume, suggesting that the underlying mechanisms of volume expansion are contained in the cascade core and are thus related to the highest-energy events: atom ejection and thermal quenching.