Quadrupole Susceptibility and Elastic Softening due to a Vacancy in Silicon Crystal

Abstract

We investigate the electronic states around a single vacancy in silicon crystal by using the Green's function approach. The triply degenerate vacancy states within the band gap are found to be extended over a large distance $\sim20 {\rm \AA}$ from the vacancy site and contribute to the reciprocal temperature dependence of the quadrupole susceptibility resulting in the elastic softening at low temperture. The Curie constant of the quadrupole susceptibility for the trigonal mode ($O_{yz},O_{zx},O_{xy}$) is largely enhanced as compared to that for the tetragonal mode ($O_{2}^{0},O_{2}^{2}$). The obtained results are consistent with the recent ultrasonic experiments in silicon crystal down to 20 mK. We also calculate the dipole and octupole susceptibilities and find that the octupole susceptibilities are extremely enhannced for a specific mode.