Elastic Energy Losses and Orientation Effects during Interaction between Atomic Particles

Patterns of energy transfer and accumulation in elastic interactions between Nb⁺ ions (E₀ = 0.1–3 keV) and atoms of a Nb single crystal are studied by means of molecular dynamics. Spatial distributions of the recoil energy in the bulk of the crystal are calculated. It is shown that recoil energy is accumulated in the region of the densest packing of atoms, mainly in the outermost (N = 1–3) monolayers of the crystal. The effect the orientation of the target with respect to the beam has on the recoil energy and its spatial distributions is determined.