Vacancies in a Si(111) thin film

We investigated the electronic structure of an ideal vacancy in the Si(111) thin film by using empirical tight binding method. The supercell model used in our calculations predicted vacancy related states in general agreement with previous works. For the vacancy near the surface, it is found that the bound state energies shift to higher energies as the vacancy moves toward the surface. At the surface, however, it was seen that the vacancy bound state mix with the dangling bond surface states. Considering energy locations in the bond gap, we propose that vacancies created in the surfaceregion may account for the peak (at about ～0.5 eV above the valence band edge) in the density of interface states observed at the interface of the Si-SiO₂ junction.