Simulation of radiation-induced structural transformation in amorphous metals

Molecular-dynamics simulations investigating the radiation-induced structural transformations in metallic glasses are reported. We have studied three models of an equilibrium simple glass, possessing a pronounced icosahedral local order. Two of these are monatomic and one represents the amorphous Ni-P alloy. A detailed analysis of the evolution of the structural damage induced by irradiation is presented. In all the systems, a persistent residual reduction in icosahedral order is observed. An important finding of this study is that the metallic glasses are able to sustain a considerable increase in the number of vacancies which arises as a result of the irradiation-induced structural transformation.