TOPICAL REVIEW: Understanding resistance to amorphization by radiation damage

Decades of experimental and theoretical studies have brought some useful insights about what defines resistance to amorphization by radiation damage; however, the problem is still viewed as generally unsolved. I review ideas and concepts that have been put forward to help with understanding this problem. I then discuss how the type of interatomic force is relevant for resistance to amorphization, with covalency of bonding stabilizing the damage and making material amorphizable. On a more detailed level, I suggest that resistance to amorphization of a complex non-metallic material is defined by the competition between the short-range covalent and long-range ionic forces. I follow this with a review of experimental data on 116 materials, to illustrate that the type of interatomic force can generally explain the resistance to amorphization. I conclude by discussing how the proposed picture is related to models proposed previously, and by suggesting some possible future research.