https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-07268-y
Regular Article
Preexisting helium effects on primary radiation damage in copper: atomic-scale insights from molecular dynamics simulations
1
Key Laboratory of Material Physics, Ministry of Education, School of Physics, Zhengzhou University, 450001, Zhengzhou, China
2
International Joint Laboratory for Integrated Circuits Design and Application, Ministry of Education, School of Physics, Zhengzhou University, 450001, Zhengzhou, China
a
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Received:
31
August
2025
Accepted:
29
December
2025
Published online:
17
January
2026
Abstract
Copper is a prime candidate for fusion divertor heat sinks due to its superior thermal conductivity and irradiation resistance. Nevertheless, atomic-level mechanisms underlying the synergies of irradiation-induced defects and helium in copper remain poorly understood. Herein, helium-mediated irradiation damage mechanisms are investigated in copper via atomistic simulations across helium concentrations (0–8000 appm), cascade energies (1–7 keV), and temperatures (100–900 K). Results show that helium reduces the threshold displacement energy and forms HenVk clusters that suppress Frenkel pair recombination, yielding a characteristic double-peak defect evolution with elevated secondary peaks in helium-doped systems. A helium concentration of 4000 appm optimizes HenVk formation before competitive trapping reduces cluster efficacy at 6000 appm. Cascade energy dominates defect dynamics, extending cascade duration and increasing displacement peak amplitudes linearly with energy while inducing minor stress-field-driven peaks. Elevated temperatures amplify defect production and helium diffusion, widening the divergence between pure and helium-doped systems. Notably, 500 K disrupts standard clustering behavior due to HenVk formation energy variations. Residual defect populations scale with operational parameters. These findings provide critical insights for radiation-resistant copper alloy design in fusion environments.
Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-07268-y.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2026
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
