EXTENDED AMORPHOUS VACANCIES. AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE SELF-INTERSTITIAL IN Si.

Abstract

The low value of the heat of crystallization of amorphous Si, only 0. 1 eV per atom, requires that zones of amorphous material be considered among the native defects. Here are considered two distinct kinds of amorphous zones, one less dense than c-Si and containing sites of multiple dangling bonds, which are called 'extended amorphous vacancies', and one more dense than c-Si and tending to have H in the bonds on their surface, which are likened to the 'extended interstitials' of Seeger and Chik. The thermodynamic properties of these and of the simple vacancy and simple interstitial are estimated from empirical data.