Atomic recoil Atomic recoil Atomic recoil is the result of the interaction of an atom with an energetic elementary particle, when the momentum of the interacting particle is transferred to the atom as whole without altering non-translational degrees of freedom of the atom. It is a purely quantum phenomenon. Atomic recoil was discovered by Harriet Brooks, Canada's first female nuclear physicist. If the transferred momentum of atomic recoil is enough to disrupt the crystal lattice of the material, a vacancy defect is formed; otherwise a phonon is generated. Closely related to atomic recoil is electron recoil (see photoexcitation and photoionization), and nuclear
Drude particle a changing local environment. Classical Drude particles are massless virtual sites carrying a partial electric charge, attached to individual atoms via a harmonic spring. The spring constant and relative partial charges on the atom and associated Drude particle determine its response to the local electrostatic field, serving as a proxy for the changing distribution of the electronic charge of the atom or molecule. However, this response is limited to a changing dipole moment. This response is not enough to model interactions in environments with large field gradients, which interact with higher order moments. The major computational cost of simulating classical