Numerical Studies Of The Dynamics Of Silicon: Relaxation, Nucleation And Energy Landscape

Abstract

AbstractUsing various simulation techniques, such as molecular dynamics and the activation-relaxation technique, we are slowly developing a consistent picture of the dynamical properties of amorphous silicon. For example, results of an extensive search for the activated events surrounding a single minimum, in a well-relaxed model represented by a modified Stillinger-Weber potential, confirm that barrier height at the transition point, for activated mechanisms, is determined essentially by the binding energy of a single bond and not the details of the mechanism. We will discuss these results in some detail as well as recent simulations of nucleation in liquid and amorphous silicon.