LAUSR

Abstract Defect generation rates are important parameters required by mean-field approaches to predict evolution of materials under irradiation. However, a reliable estimation of the rates is hindered by a multiscale nature of the damage process. This paper reports the results of a consistent modeling of all stages of cascade development from ballistic collisions to a long-term annealing. This consistency allows us to calculate the generation rates of defects and their clusters, that are suitable for use in mean-field approaches. As a result, we demonstrate on the example of BCC iron that a variation of the irradiation temperature or the energy spectrum of incident particles could change the generation rates by almost an order of magnitude and significantly modify their cluster-size distributions.