A possible model of amorphous silicon and germanium

Abstract

A structural model is proposed with regions consisting of identical two-dimensionally perfect layers, stacked randomly on top of one another such that bonds in adjacent layers are in either diamond-like (staggered) or wurtzite-like (eclipsed) configurations. The model has perfect tetrahedral coordination everywhere throughout such regions and is consistent with electron microscopy results and with the observed diffraction data, especially those features corresponding to the diamond (1,1,1) and (2,2,0), (3,1,1) peaks.