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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Silicon Metal-oxide-semiconductor Quantum Dots for Single-electron Pumping
Published on: June 3, 2015
Self-trapped excitons in silicon dioxide: mechanism and properties
Sohrab Ismail-Beigi1, Steven G Louie
1Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
Abstract:
Irradiating silica produces self-trapped excitons (STEs) that spontaneously create atomic-scale distortions on which they localize themselves. Despite enduring interest in STEs and subsequent defects in this key technological material, the trapping mechanism and geometry remain a mystery. Our ab initio study of STEs in alpha-quartz using a many-electron Green's function approach answers both questions. The STE comprises a broken O-Si bond with the hole localized on the defected oxygen and the electron on the defected silicon atom in a planar sp2 conformation. The results further explain quantitatively the measured STE spectra.
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