Radiation effects and tolerance mechanism in β-eucryptite

Previous studies on Li-silicates have shown that these materials are resistant to radiation damage even in extreme physical and chemical environments, and are thus promising solid-state breeder materials in fusion reactors. Here, we focus on b-eucryptite as a member of Li-Al silicate class of ceramics with potential for nuclear applications, and study the atomic-scale processes induced by radiation. Using molecular dynamics simulations based on a reactive force field, we have found that upon radiation dosage of 0.21 displacements-per-atom or less, the structure largely retains its long-range order while exhibiting (a) disordering of the Li atoms, (b) distortion of the Si and Al tetrahedra defined as the change in their oxygen-coordination number, and (c) tilting of the Si and Al tetrahedra with respect to one another. We find that Si tetrahedra that distort to SiO 3 during exposure to radiation recover significantly upon thermal relaxation, and provide the mechanism for this recovery. This mechanism consists in the tilting of AlO 5 polyhedra formed upon exposure so as to satisfy the oxygen-coordination of distorted Si tetrahedra. Doubling the dosage results in a significant increase of the concentration of Si-Al antisite defects, which renders the tolerance mechanism inefficient and leads to amorphization.