C D Latham et al 2008 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 20 395220 doi:10.1088/0953-8984/20/39/395220
C D Latham1, M I Heggie1, J A Gámez2, I Suárez-Martínez3, C P Ewels3 and P R Briddon4
Show affiliationsDi-interstitial defects appear to play a key role in the microscopic understanding of radiation-induced damage in graphite. Their formation has been invoked as both one of the main causes of dimensional change and as an energy releasing step in annealing cryogenic radiation-induced damage. In the present work, first principles calculations are employed to examine several models for these defects. Two of the structures possess nearly equal energy, yet take very different forms. The results suggest that di-interstitial defects cannot play the principal role in radiation damage that has been assigned to them. The possibility that one of the structures may exhibit ferromagnetism is also investigated.
61.72.J- Point defects and defect clusters
Issue 39 (1 October 2008)
Received 9 July 2008, in final form 10 July 2008
Published 4 September 2008
C D Latham et al 2008 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 20 395220