Vapor–Liquid Equilibria of Silicon by the Gibbs Ensemble Simulation

Vapor-liquid equilibrium simulations of silicon were performed using the Stillinger-Weber potential with the Gibbs ensemble MoInte Carlo method (GEMC). In the low temperature region, from about 3000 to 3500 K, our calculations show the stability of phases and good agreement with several experimental results. On the whole, there is little dependence on the size of the system except near the estimated critical point of silicon: TQ = 7500 + 500 K and pc = 750± 100 k g - m ~ 3 as determined by the law of rectilinear diameter. Above 3500 K, vapor-liquid coexistence properties which have not been obtained by experiment are derived.