Structural information from the Raman spectrum of amorphous silicon

Abstract

The Raman scattering from various model structures for amorphous silicon is computed. It is shown that the width of the ``optic peak'' increases roughly linearly with the rms bond-angle distortion \ensuremath{\Delta}${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{b}$ of the network. The experimentally observed linewidths lead to 7.7\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{\Delta}${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{b}$\ensuremath{\le}10.5\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}. The smaller linewidths (and hence angles) correspond to networks that have been annealed at higher temperatures. These results are consistent with model-building experience which shows that it is impossible to construct fully bonded amorphous networks with \ensuremath{\Delta}${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{b}$\ensuremath{\le}6.6\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}.