Molecular dynamics simulation of threshold displacement energy and primary damage state in Niobium

In this work, a many-body potential of Nb for radiation damage simulation was developed based on EAM, and most of the point defects of Nb can be predicted properly by this potential. By using the constructed potential, the direction-specific threshold displacement energies (TDE) and displacement cascades up to 20 keV of Nb were performed through molecular dynamics simulations. The calculated results of TDE are in good agreement with previous work for V, Mo and experimental measurements. Lowest TDE was found in <100> direction, and local minas of TDE were found in three low-index directions, which has relation: Ed[100]