Threshold displacement energy and damage function in graphite from molecular dynamics

The environment dependent interatomic potential (EDIP) including Ziegler–Biersack–Littermark (ZBL) interactions for close encounters is applied to cascades starting from a host atom and from an interstitial atom. We find the room temperature displacement threshold to be 25 eV, increasing to 30 eV at 900 K. The latter correlates well with the measured threshold for vacancy production. Additionally, divacancy production is found to occur, including interlayer divacancies from around 60 eV. The data suggest a new, continuous damage function applies, where the threshold region depends on the square root of the primary knock-on atom (PKA) energy in excess of the threshold, evolving to a linear dependence on PKA energy.