An Integrated Experimental and Computational Approach for the Investigation of Irradiation Effects in Materials

Ion beams delivered by particle accelerators are routinely used to emulate harsh, radiative environments and they also constitute the foundations of the modern microelectronics industry. To characterize irradiated materials, numerous experimental and computational techniques can be implemented, but it is extremely diffcult to effectively intertwine them, and to compare the associated data. In the present work, we present an integrated, experimental and computational approach that uses a same set of molecular dynamics simulations to generate signals of Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in channelling condition andX-ray diffraction, with UO2 as a test-case material. From these signals, parameters to monitor the damage level are computed, compared and confronted with experimental data. The good agreement that comes out demonstrates the validity of the approach, hence providing a new tool for the fine study of irradiation effects in materials.