# Structural Relaxation Kinetics for First and Second-Order Processes: Application to Pure Amorphous Silicon Source: [Structural Relaxation Kinetics for First and Second-Order Processes: Application to Pure Amorphous Silicon]() Collection index: [llms.txt]() Data updated: 2025-10-28T13:52:28.908Z Authors: Pere Roura, Jordi Farjas Published: 2009-01-16T14:15:57.000Z ## Abstract The structural relaxation of amorphous materials is described as arising from the superposition of elementary processes with varying activation energies. We show that it is possible to obtain the kinetic parameters of these processes from differential scanning calorimetry experiments. The transformation rate is predicted for the transient decay when an isotherm is reached and for the relaxation threshold detected in partially relaxed samples. Good agreement is obtained with experiment if the individual components transform through first-order kinetics, but inconsistencies arise for second-order components. Our analysis, that improves the classical treatment by Gibbs et al.\[1\], allows the activation energies and the pre-exponential rate constants to be extracted independently. When applied to a-Si, we conclude that the pre-exponential rate constant is far from constant. The kinetic parameters obtained from DSC are used to analyze the relaxation of a-Si in pulsed laser experiments and to discuss the relationship between structural relaxation and crystallization. ## Recorded benchmark results A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage. ## Original sources and implementation [Original paper]() [PDF]()