Extensive first-principles molecular dynamics simulations were made of the structure of amorphous material which was produced by rapid quenching from the melt. The structure of the material was found to be strongly ordered chemically, even though there was a significant number of coordination defects, and in spite of the presence of odd-membered rings. It was found that so-called wrong bonds therefore existed in the system; to the extent of about 8%. These resulted from the presence of coordination defects, rather than local compositional fluctuations. The system was essentially over-coordinated, and this was suggested to be the reason for the observed higher density of amorphous material as compared with that of crystalline material. The possibility of pressure-amorphizing InP was investigated, but calculations indicated that the energetic cost of transformation of compressed crystalline zincblende into an amorphous phase would be so large that it was very unlikely to occur.

L.J.Lewis, A.De Vita, R.Car: Physical Review B, 1998, 57[3], 1594-606