Laser-induced melting of silicon: A tight-binding molecular dynamics simulation

The tight-binding molecular dynamics method with hot electrons is used to s imulate the laser-induced melting of silicon. The results are in good agree ment with previous ab initio simulation and experimental data. Our findings assess the reliability of the tight-binding model to describe silicon with a high concentration of excited electrons. The role of volume changes in t he laser-induced melting has also been addressed within constant-pressure t ight-binding molecular dynamics.