Effects of the electron-phonon coupling activation in collision cascades

Using the two-temperature (2T-MD) model in molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the condition of switching the electronic stopping term off when the electron-phonon coupling is activated in the damage production due to 50 keV Ni ion cascades in Ni and equiatomic NiFe. Additionally, we investigate the effect of the electron-phonon coupling activation time in the damage production. We find that the switching condition has negligible effect in the produced damage, while the choice of the activation time of the electron-phonon coupling can affect the amount of surviving damage. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.