Langevin-molecular-dynamics simulations of thin-61m growth by energetic cluster impact were carried out. The impact of a Mo]043 cluster on a Mo(001) surface was studied for impact energies of 0.1, 1, and 10 eV/atom using the Finnis-Sinclair many-body potential. The characteristics of the collision range from a soft touchdown at 0.1 eV/atom, over a tlattening collision at 1 eV/atom, to a meteoric impact at 10 eV/atom. The highest energy impact creates a pressure of about 100 GPa in the impact zone and sends a strong shock wave into the material. The cluster temperature reaches a maximum of 596 K for 0.1 eV/atom, 1799 K for 1 eV/atom, and 6607 K for 10 eV/atom during the first ps after the touchdown. For energies of 1 and 10 eV/atom the cluster recrystallizes after 20 ps. The consecutive collision of 50 Moio4s clusters with a Mo(001) surface at T=300 K was simulated for the three impact energies. The formation of a porous film is calculated for clusters impinging with low kinetic energy, while for the clusters with the highest energy a dense mirrorlike film is obtained, in good agreement with experiment.

A new "nanopumping" effect consisting of the activation of an axial gas flow inside a carbon nanotube by producing Rayleigh traveling waves on the nanotube surface is predicted. The driving force for the new effect is the friction between the gas particles and the nanotube walls. A molecular dynamics simulation of the new effect was carried out showing macroscopic flows of atomic and molecular hydrogen and helium gases in a carbon nanotube.

A new interatomic potential for a uranium-molybdenum system with xenon is developed in the framework of an embedded atom model using a forcematching technique and a dataset of ab initio atomic forces. The verification of the potential proves that it is suitable for the investigation of various compounds existing in the system as well as for simulation of pure elements: U, Mo and Xe. Computed lattice constants, thermal expansion coefficients, elastic properties and melting temperatures of U, Mo and Xe are consistent with the experimentally measured values. The energies of the point defect formation in pure U and Mo are proved to be comparable to the density-functional theory calculations. We compare this new U-Mo-Xe potential with the previously developed U and Mo-Xe potentials. A comparative study between the different potential functions is provided. The key purpose of the new model is to study the atomistic processes of defect evolution taking place in the U-Mo nuclear fuel. Here we use the potential to simulate bcc alloys containing 10 wt% of intermetallic Mo and U 2 Mo.

We argue that the physics of unipolar arcs and surface cracks can help understand rf breakdown, and vacuum arc data. We outline a model of the basic mechanisms involved in breakdown and explore how the physics of unipolar arcs and cracks can simplify the picture of breakdown and gradient limits in accelerators, tokamaks as well as laser ablation, micrometeorites and other applications. Cracks are commonly seen in SEM images of arc damage and they are produced as the liquid metal cools, they produce the required field enhancements to explain field emission data data and can produce fractures that would trigger breakdown events. Unipolar arcs can produce currents sufficient to short out rf structures, should cause the sort of damage seen in SEM images, should be unstable and possibly self-quenching as seen in optical fluctuations and surface damage.

No abstract