The large-scale molecular dynamics of cascade production in the primary damage state were modelled in nanocrystalline material, with an average grain diameter of 12nm, for primary knock-on atom kinetic energies ranging from 5 to 30keV. The role of the grain boundary during cascade production in irradiated nanocrystalline material was considered in terms of the grain-boundary structure. It was shown that regions of misfit in the grain boundaries could absorb self-interstitials, and that stacking-fault tetrahedra were formed in the neighborhood of the grain boundary.

Radiation Damage near Grain Boundaries. M.Samaras, P.M.Derlet, H.Van Swygenhoven, M.Victoria: Philosophical Magazine, 2003, 83[31], 3599-607