centers in amorphous

摘要： We investigate the charge-trapping behavior in nitrogen-deficient amorphous silicon nitride (a-Si3N4?x) using first-principles calculations. The amorphous ensembles with one nitrogen atom missing are generated through melt-quench procedures. The nitrogen deficiency mainly produces one Si—Si bond and one K center (Si dangling bond). The energy level of defect states indicates that the K centers act as possible trap sites. The transition levels of K centers are estimated, and it is found that the Hubbard U energy ranges from ?1.14 to 1.11 eV. Even though most K centers show positive U, the charge states of most centers in the ensemble are either positive or negative under the charge-neutrality condition, resulting in 'seemingly negative-U' behavior. This is consistent with the diamagnetic signal in experiments. The charge-injection energy of K centers is evaluated on the basis of the Franck-Condon approximation, and the average trap depths for electrons (1.33 eV below the conduction edge) and holes (1.54 eV above the valence edge) are in good agreement with experimental data.