Annealing of radiation damage in Si. A molecular dynamics study

Abstract We investigate the annealing of damage produced by a dense collision cascade in the bulk of a silicon target. The evolution of the damage with time (up to 50ps) and its dependence with the annealing temperature (up to 1700 K) are studied. We find that the damage present at the end of the relaxation stage is larger for high temperatures, but when the thermal equilibrium is reached throughout the target, the annealing is more pronounced at higher temperatures. We also model non-linear effects in the annealing of the damage due to two interacting cascades and find qualitative agreement with experimental reports.