Surface-mediated reduction of ion-irradiation-induced damage in tungsten revealed by advanced ion channeling analysis

2025/12/17 by Jin, Xin, Granberg, Fredric, Nordlund, Kai +3
Engineering · Materials Science · #FOS: Physical sciences #Fusion materials and technologies #Ion-surface interactions and analysis #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Nuclear materials and radiation effects

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.15132

openalex publication_date 2025/12/17 · openalex created_date 2025/12/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Tungsten is a leading candidate material for plasma-facing components in future fusion reactors. In this work, we integrate advanced ion channeling analysis with large-scale molecular dynamics simulations to uncover a pronounced surface-mediated reduction of radiation damage in single-crystal tungsten at elevated temperatures. We demonstrate how our unique analysis method can clearly resolve a dislocation-free zone near the surface and a transition region with suppressed defect density before reaching the bulk value. A possible explanation for the strong surface effect at elevated temperatures can be obtained by considering the coherent drift motion of dislocation loops toward the surface.

Citations

• New insight into quantifying vacancy distribution in self-ion irradiated tungsten: a combined experimental and computational study
• An empirical potential for simulating hydrogen isotope retention in highly irradiated tungsten
• LAMMPS - a flexible simulation tool for particle-based materials modeling at the atomic, meso, and continuum scales
• Screw dislocations in BCC transition metals: from ab initio modeling to\n yield criterion
• Thermal diffusivity degradation and point defect density in self-ion implanted tungsten
• Fast Parallel Algorithms for Short-Range Molecular Dynamics

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