Electronic Structure of the Jahn-Teller Distorted Vacancy in Silicon

Abstract

This Letter reports self-consistent—field calculations of the electronic structure of the Jahn-Teller distorted vacancy in Si. With use of the tetragonal atomic displacements estimated by Watkins, it is found that the Jahn-Teller splitting of the sixfold-degenerate bound state in the gap is of the order of 0.5 eV. This, together with small breathing-mode displacements, results in a fully occupied doublet in the lower part of the band gap, in agreement with experimental observations.