Refinement of the Si-O-Si bond angle distribution in vitreous silica

A model of silica glass consisting of a fully connected corner-sharing network Of SiO4 tetrahedra is refined using neutron diffraction data and reverse Monte Carlo modelling. This model is then used to investigate optimal inter-tetrahedral Si-O-Si bond angle distributions. The distribution which is most consistent with the data is found to be centred around theta(Si-O-Si) = 151.0degrees with a standard deviation of between 9degrees and 12degrees. Other recent determinations of the Si-O-Si bond angle distribution are in good agreement with this result.