Tight-binding calculations of Si-H clusters using genetic algorithms and related techniques: Studies using differential evolution

A nonorthogonal tight-binding model has been developed for the system conta ining Si and H, where the energy functional included the contributions of b oth electronic and pairwise interaction between the atoms. In order to calc ulate the ground state structures of various clusters, energy minimization was carried out using Differential Evolution: a very recently developed bio logically inspired computing technique, belonging, in general, to the famil y of Genetic Algorithms (GAs), but having a number of advantages over its c onventional forms.