MD-simulations of Quantum Wells and Dots
Abstract
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K. Scheerschmidt and M. Werner
Carbon supersaturation and high density of twin lamellae influence the physical properties of multi-crystalline silicon and restrict its applicability as a material in photovoltaics. To understand, e.g., the resulting structural modifications and the stress relief, the carbon incorporation in silicon has to be investigated by total energy minimizations using molecular dynamics simulations either at ab-initio level (DFT) or applying classical methods with empirical potentials. The relaxed structure models support the interpretation of transmission electron micrographs by contrast simulations and thus the analysis of carbon incorporation at twins or elsewhere in silicon
Fig. 1 Models resulting from ab-initio structure simulations (DFT) to minimize the total energy: a) Si twin structure (T) with a {111} lattice plane distance of 3.14Å as average of the two adjacent atom layers (numbers indicate the important next neighbor distances in Å); b) Half of (111) twin double plane (C@T) occupied with C (brighter spheres); c) One C-layer parallel to the twin (C-separate); d) Randomly distributed C substitutions (C-random); e) Double layer of C occupation (2C@T) at the twin yielding an additional lattice shift; f) Half twin C occupation and randomly distributed C near the twin (C@T&random).
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Fig. 2 MD-relaxed model (54,000 atoms, TS potential) with (111)-twins (T), half (C@T) or double (2C@T) layer C-occupation, and random C-substitution (R) . Inset: relative total and potential energy per atom during equilibration at the different temperature steps. |
| Fig. 3 Image simulations of Si-{111}-twin structures: (a) relaxation using empirical MD with the TS potential and 54000 atoms according to Fig.2, (b) non-relaxed twin, (c) ab-initio relaxed twin (T), (d) C-layer outside the twin, (e) half (C@T) layer C-occupation, (f) double (2C@T) layer C-occupation, (g) random C-substitution (R) from Fig. 1. |
