Barrier to Migration of the Silicon Self-Interstitial

The first total-energy calculations of barriers to interstitial migration have been used to study silicon self-interstitial migration. Migration occurs through the low-electron-density path. Relaxation was found to be important in determining the barrier for both ${\mathrm{Si}}^{\mathrm{}\left(0\right)\mathrm{}}$ and ${\mathrm{Si}}^{\mathrm{}(++)\mathrm{}}$. Electron-assisted migration has been demonstrated. ${\mathrm{Si}}^{\mathrm{}(++)\mathrm{}}$ was found to have lower energy at the tetrahedral site while ${\mathrm{Si}}^{\mathrm{}\left(0\right)\mathrm{}}$ has lower energy at the hexagonal site.