MD simulation of atomic displacement cascades in Fe–10 at.%Cr binary alloy

Molecular dynamics simulation of atomic displacement cascades up to 20 keV has been performed in Fe–10 at.%Cr binary alloy at a temperature of 600 K. The N-body interatomic potentials of Finnis–Sinclair type were used. According to the obtained results the dependence of “surviving” defects amount is well approximated by power function that coincides with other researchers’ results. Obtained cascade efficiency for damage energy in the range from 10 to 20 keV is ≈0.2 NRT that is slightly higher than for pure α-Fe. In post-cascade area Cr fraction in interstitials is in range 2–5% that is essentially lower than Cr content in the base alloy. The results on size and amount of vacancy and interstitial clusters generated in displacement cascades are obtained. For energies of 2 keV and higher the defect cluster average size increases and it is well approximated by a linear dependence on cascade energy both for interstitials and vacancies.