Eur. Phys. J. B 68, 1-21 (2009)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2009-00080-0

Topics in the theory of amorphous materials

¹ Trinity College, Cambridge, CB2 1TQ, UK
² Clare Hall, Herschel Road, Cambridge, CB3 9AL, UK
³ Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, 45701, USA

Corresponding author: ^a drabold@ohio.edu

Received: 21 January 2009
Revised: 8 February 2009
Published online: 6 March 2009

Abstract

In this Colloquium, I describe some current frontiers in the physics of semiconducting amorphous materials and glasses, including a short, but self-contained discussion of techniques for creating computer models, among them the quench from the melt method, the Activation-Relaxation Technique, the decorate and relax method, and the experimentally constrained molecular relaxation scheme. A representative study of an interesting and important glass (amorphous GeSe₃:Ag) is provided. This material is a fast-ion conductor and a serious candidate to replace current FLASH memory. Next, I discuss the effects of topological disorder on electronic states. By computing the decay of the density matrix in real space, and also computing well-localized Wannier functions, we close with a quantitative discussion of Kohn's Principle of Nearsightedness in amorphous silicon.