Electronic Structure of Silicon Nanowires Matrix from Ab Initio Calculations

An investigation of the model of porous silicon in the form of periodic set of silicon nanowires has been carried out. The electronic energy structure was studied using a first-principle band method—the method of pseudopotentials (ultrasoft potentials in the basis of plane waves) and linearized mode of the method of combined pseudopotentials. Due to the use of hybrid exchange-correlation potentials (B3LYP), the quantitative agreement of the calculated value of band gap in the bulk material with experimental data is achieved. The obtained results show that passivation of dangling bonds with hydrogen atoms leads to substantial transformation of electronic energy structure. At complete passivation of the dangling silicon bonds by hydrogen atoms, the band gap value takes the magnitude which substantially exceeds that for bulk silicon. The incomplete passivation gives rise to opposite effect when the band gap value decreases down the semimetallic range.