The objective of this work is to understand the behavior of semiconductor electronic devices and materials when subject to irradiation (impacts from high energy particles).
We perform non-adiabatic electron-ion molecular dynamics based on time-dependent density functional theory (DFT) in order to carry out this objective.
Direct quantum simulation of self irradiated silicon shows a mechanism of electron excitations by which a gap state ferries electrons from the valence to conduction band.
This work has been recently been published in Physical Review Letters.