Influence of isotope effect on radiation resistance of monocrystalline silicon

Abstract

This paper examined the impact of the isotope effect on the lattice structure of monocrystalline silicon, as well as the defects caused by proton irradiation. First, by using the molecular dynamics simulation, the number of point defects of monocrystalline silicon exposed to protons was calculated, and the number of stable defects in 30Si was 11%–14% lower than that in 28Si. Second, the structures of various isotopes at 300 K were simulated through ab initio molecular dynamics simulations based on the density functional theory. In addition, the thermal stability of the two structures was determined. The results indicated that pure 30Si had superior radiation resistance to pure 28Si, which suggested a new idea for the radiation resistance enhancement of silicon materials.