Many-body central force potentials for tungsten

Abstract

Tungsten and tungsten-based alloys are the primary candidate materials for\nplasma facing components in fusion reactors. The exposure to high-energy\nradiation, however, severely degrades the performance and lifetime limits of\nthe in-vessel components. In an effort to better understand the mechanisms\ndriving the materials’ degradation at the atomic level, large-scale atomistic\nsimulations are performed to complement experimental investigations. At the\ncore of such simulations lies the interatomic potential, on which all subsequent\nresults hinge. In this work we review 19 central force many-body potentials\nand benchmark their performance against experiments and density functional\ntheory (DFT) calculations. The presented results serve as an initial guide and\nreference list for both the modelling of atomically-driven phenomena in bcc\ntungsten, and the further development of its potentials.