Atomic and electronic structures of a-SiC : H from tight-binding molecular dynamics

摘要

The atomic and electronic properties of amorphous unhydrogenated (a-SiC) and hydrogenated (a-SiC:H) silicon carbides are studied using an sp(3)s* tight-binding force model with molecular dynamics simulations. The parameters of a repulsive pairwise potential are determined from ab initio pseudopotential calculations. Both carbides are generated from dilute vapours condensed from high temperature, with post-annealing at low temperature for a-SiC:H. A plausible model for the inter-atomic correlations and electronic states in a-SiC:H is suggested. According to this model, the formation of the amorphous network is weakly sensitive to the presence of hydrogen. Hydrogen passivates effectively only the weak bonds of threefold-coordinated atoms. Chemical ordering is very much affected by the cooling rate and the structure of the high-temperature vapour. The as-computed characteristics are in rather good agreement with the results for a-SiC and a-Si:H from ab initio calculations. [References: 22]