Evidence from atomistic simulations of fluctuation electron microscopy for preferred local orientations in amorphous silicon

Simulations from a family of atomistic structural models for unhydrogenated amorphous silicon suggest that fluctuation electron microscopy experiments have observed orientational order of paracrystalline grains in amorphous silicon. This order may consist of correlations in the orientation of nearby paracrystalline grains or anisotropy in the grain shape. This observation makes a natural connection to the known growth modes of microcrystalline silicon and may be useful for other materials systems. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.