Iron phosphate glasses: Structure determination and radiation tolerance

We also estimate an upper and lower bound on the melting temperatures of each glass, then for each glass, we simulate radiation damage cascades at 4 keV. The cascade structures can be in the form of either a concentrated thermal spike or more diffuse with sub-cascade branching. We found that the glass compositions with a higher Fe/P atomic ratio, contained a greater number of displacements after the cascade. We also found that the IPG with 4% Fe2+, contained slightly fewer displacements than the IPG with 17% Fe2+. This is consistent with our previous work, which showed that the threshold displacement energies are lower for glasses with a lower Fe2+ content. In all the simulations, many PO4 polyhedra are destroyed during the early stages of irradiation, but recover strongly over a time scale of picoseconds, leaving very few over or under co-ordinated P atoms at the end of the ballistic phase. This is in contrast to recent work in apatite. The strong recovery indicates that phosphate glasses with a low Fe2+ content could be good materials for waste encapsulation.