Frenkel pair accumulation induced crystallization of amorphous MgAl2O4

The epitaxial and homogeneous irradiation induced re-crystallization of amorphous MgAl2O4 was studied by means of continuous Frenkel pair accumulation in the molecular dynamics framework. Present results point out that the re-crystallization induced by Frenkel pair accumulation appears in both cases to be thermally enhanced but non diffusive. It is governed by a local rearrangement of each point defect in the homogeneous case, while spontaneous Frenkel pair recombination process in the crystalline part or at the interface drives the re-crystallization in the epitaxial case.