Vitreous Silica Minus Oxygen⇒Amorphous Silicon: A Model Study
DORIS L. EVANS, M. P. Teter, Nick F. Borrelli · 1974
Deleting the 2‐connected points which represent oxygen atoms in a random network model of vitreous silica yields a model for a 1‐element tetrahedral structure consisting of 651 point‐atoms. The distribution of pair distances gives 5 distinguishable peaks. The first peak is Gaussian and the second peak is nearly so. The details of the asymmetric 3rd peak largely reflect the various geometries of 6‐membered rings. Mathematical manipulation of the atom coordinates can be made such that the areas of the first 2 peaks can be redistributed without breaking any connections or significantly changing the significant details of peaks at larger distances. Coordination or packing numbers for the average atom have been obtained by a topological analysis.