It is widely accepted in the materials modeling community that defect-free
realistic networks of amorphous silicon cannot be prepared by quenching from a
molten state of silicon using classical or ab initio molecular-dynamics (MD)
simulations. In this work, we address this long-standing problem by producing
nearly defect-free ultra-large models of amorphous silicon, consisting of up to
half-a-million atoms, using classical molecular-dynamics simulations. The
structural, topological, electronic, and vibrational properties of the models
are presented and compared with experimental data. A comparison of the models
with those obtained from using the modified Wooten-Winer-Weaire bond-switching
algorithm shows that the models are on par with the latter, which were
generated via event-based total-energy relaxations of atomistic networks in the
configuration space. The MD models produced in this work represent the highest
quality of amorphous-silicon networks so far reported in the literature using
molecular-dynamics simulations.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
