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Amorphous silicon (a-Si) networks have been generated from melted Si with various quenching rates by molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations employing the Tersoff potential. The cooling rates were set between 510^11 and 110^14K/s; the latter is the slowest quenching rate in MD simulations previously performed. Although the atomic configurations formed by the cooling rate of 10^14K/s could reproduce the radial distribution function of a-Si obtained experimentally, they contained numerous structural defects such as threefold- and fivefold-coordinated atoms. As the cooling rate decreased, the average coordination number became 4 and tetrahedral bonds predominated. The structural and dynamical properties of a-Si generated by a cooling rate with 10^12K/s were in excellent agreement with those of a-Si obtained experimentally.
Ishimaru et al. (Mon,) studied this question.