Amorphous networks were generated from molten material by using various quenching rates in molecular dynamics simulations that involved a Tersoff potential. The cooling rates ranged from 5 x 1011 to 1014K/s. The latter was the slowest quenching rate which had been assumed in previous molecular dynamics simulations. Although the atomic configurations which were produced by a cooling rate of 1014K/s could reproduce the experimentally measured radial distribution function of amorphous Si, they contained numerous structural defects such as 3-fold and 5-fold coordinated atoms. When the bonds predominated. The structural and dynamic properties of amorphous Si, as generated by a cooling rate of 1012K/s, were in excellent agreement with those found experimentally for amorphous Si.

M.Ishimaru, S.Munetoh, T.Motooka: Physical Review B, 1997, 56[23], 15133-8