Molecular dynamics simulation of amorphous SiO2 cascade collisions

Compared with other energy sources, nuclear energy is considered to be the most competitive energy in this century. In the fusion experiment, it was found that the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction released a large number of high-energy rays, which made the optical elements in the fusion device in the laser and other types of radiation interaction. Therefore, it is necessary to study the generation of defects in amorphous SiO₂ under irradiation, the evolution law of defects, and their influence on mechanical properties. The results show that after the single secondary collision, the radial distribution curve and bond angle distribution curve have no new peaks in other positions of the curve except for the wave crest reduction and width widening. This indicates that the cascade damage only makes the original amorphous structure system more disordered, but no new defect types are introduced. Secondly, by comparing the stress-strain curves before and after irradiation, it is found that the stress is reduced only under the cumulative irradiation of 5 keV energy. In general, amorphous SiO₂ has a strong self-recovery ability.