Magnetism Induced By Boron Impurities In Amorphous Silicon

With first-principles calculations, magnetism is found in amorphous silicon doped with B impurities. The maximum magnetic moment per impurity atom is predicted to be similar to 1.0 mu(B) which originates mostly from unsaturated bond around three-fold coordinated Si atoms. Stoner criterion is employed to account for the magnetism induced by p-type impurities. The obtained spin polarized energies are around 50 meV, indicating that the magnetism found in amorphous silicon is able to survive even at room temperature. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3565051]