Threshold displacement energy
The threshold displacement energy is the minimum kinetic energy
that an atom in a solid needs to be permanently
displaced from its lattice site to a
defect position.
It is also known as "displacement threshold energy" or just "displacement energy".
In a crystal, a separate threshold displacement
energy exists for each crystallographic
direction. Then one should distinguish between the
minimum
and average
over all
lattice directions threshold displacement energies.
In amorphous solids it may be possible to define an effective
displacement energy to describe some other average quantity of interest.
Threshold displacement energies in typical solids are
of the order of 10 - 50 eV.