Molecular dynamics study of amorphous InSb

Molecular dynamics technique is used to study structural correlations in amorphous InSb. The simulations were based on an effective interatomic potential consisting of two-body and three-body interactions. The two-body interaction includes steric repulsion, charge–charge (Coulomb), charge–dipole, and dipole–dipole interactions. Covalent effects are taken into account through three-body bond-bending and bond-stretching terms. A very well thermalized glass at 300 K was prepared from melting for different system size, with number of particles ranging from 1000 (500 In + 500 Sb) to 64 000 (32 000 In + 32 000 Sb). Structural correlations and the topology of the atoms were investigated through the analyses of the shortest path rings, static structure factors and bond-angle distributions. Very good agreement in r-space as well in q-space was achieved with experimental X-ray diffraction data.