Photoinduced volume changes in amorphous selenium

We have modeled the photoinduced volume change in amorphous selenium. After photon absorption, we treated the excited electron and hole independently within the framework of the tight-binding formalism. We found covalent bond breaking in amorphous networks with photoinduced excited electrons, whereas excited holes contribute to the formation of interchain bonds. We also observed a correlated volume change of the amorphous samples. Our results provide a new and universal description, which can simultaneously explain the photoinduced volume expansion and shrinkage. This model is supported by very recent in situ surface height measurements for amorphous selenium.