The first-principles simulations are applied to study a photoinduced metastability in amorphous selenium and contribution of the valence-alteration pair (VAP) defects in this process. The VAP defect is confirmed to be the equilibrium defect; it minimizes the destabilizing interaction induced by disorientation of the lone-pair (LP) electrons along the Se chains, and, thus, relieves tension in a system. The photoexcitation involves the LP electrons, and it is proposed to be described by two coexisting processes, namely, single- and double-electron excitations. Both processes are found to induce the defect states in the band gap and cause experimentally observed photodarkening; however, only double-electron excitation is capable of triggering bond rearrangement and structural transformation. Lattice relaxation, which follows bond rearrangement, occurs with characteristic energy of $-0.9\pm 0.3\mathrm{eV}$. It is found to promote formation of energetically favorable VAP defects and to trigger the ringlike to helixlike transformations, thus, ultimately stimulating the photoinduced crystallization. The photoinduced crystallization is directly simulated in a system characterized by increased crystalline order.

• Received 29 January 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.1.034008