By Shokirbek Shermukhamedov

Sputtering from plasma-facing surfaces upon particle impact is an important process in material science. It is especially relevant in the divertor region of fusion devices, which nearly always consist of tungsten. This paper shows the results of molecular dynamics simulations of argon bombardments of tungsten surfaces using neural network potentials. Various incident angles as well as three sample surface temperatures were investigated. The calculated sputtering yields at normal incidents are in good agreement with theoretical and experimental data. That allows us to analyze and compare other related quantities with physical processes in the fusion research field.

For more information: http://doi: 10.1140/epjd/s10053-022-00495-3