It was recalled that the factors which affected the collisional and cooling phases of displacement cascades were important in the development of models for radiation damage in metals. Features such as the recoil energy of the primary-knock-on atom, the crystal structure, the physical properties, the composition and the temperature of the material all affected the number and distribution of point defects which resulted from cascade processes. By using computer simulation techniques it was shown that, for all energies, the vacancies tended to be left in a central volume, with the interstitials scattered around the outside; often in clusters. The single interstitials could appear as <110> dumb-bells. No vacancy clustering was observed during these simulations. In spite of the evidence for faster quenching of the spike in Fe, the number of surviving defects was similar to that found in Cu simulations. Upon assuming a mean displacement threshold energy of 30eV, the cascade efficiency factor was found to be equal to about 0.3 for energies which ranged from 0.5 to 2.0keV. This was similar to that reported for Cu.

A.F.Calder, D.J.Bacon: Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids, 1994, 129[1-2], 65-8