How fast are the ultra-fast nano-scale solid–liquid phase transitions induced by energetic particles in solids?

We study the thermodynamic forces acting on the evolution of the nanoscale regions excited by collisions of energetic particles into solid targets. We analyze the role of diffusion, thermo-migration, and the liquidus–solidus two-phase field crossing, as the system cools down from the collision-induced melt under different conditions of energy deposition. To determine the relevance of these thermodynamic forces, solute redistribution is evaluated using molecular dynamics simulations of equilibrium Au–Ni solid solutions. At low collision energies, our results show that the quenching of spherical cascades is too fast to allow for solute redistribution according to equilibrium solidification as determined from the equilibrium phase diagram (zone refining effect), and only thermo-migration is observed. At higher energies instead, in the cylindrical symmetry of ion tracks, quenching rate is in a range that shows the combined effects of thermo-migration and solute redistribution that, depending on the material, can reinforce or cancel each other. These results are relevant for the interpretation of the early stage of radiation damage in alloys, and show that the combination of ultra-fast but nano-scale characteristics of these processes can still be described in terms of linear response of the perturbed system.