Publications

Influence of the Damage Partition Function on the Uncertainty of the Silicon Displacement Damage Metric

Griffin, Patrick J.; Cooper, Philip J.

The effect of uncertainty in the energy partition function on the silicon displacement damage metric is presented. Through the use of a Total Monte Carlo approach, the effect of uncertainty in the underlying electronic and nuclear ion interaction potentials, which are used to define the damage partition function, is propagated into an uncertainty in the silicon damage metric. This uncertainty is expressed as an energy-dependent covariance matrix which permits this uncertainty component to be combined with other uncertainty components, e.g. uncertainty due to the knowledge of the nuclear interaction data or to the treatment of the damage in the threshold displacement region. This approach provides a rigorous treatment of uncertainty due to the damage metric which can then be propagated in uncertainty estimates for various applications, e.g. when examining damage equivalence between different neutron sources. A strong energy-dependent correlation is found in this uncertainty component.