This
work aims at addressing the issue of the optical signature
of peroxy bridges by using first-principles methods that combine density
functional theory, GW (where G and W stand for one-particle Green
function and screened Coulomb potential, respectively), and the solution
of a Bethe–Salpeter equation on a bulk amorphous SiO2 model. We demonstrate that the presence of bridges induces broad
and weak absorption bands between 3.2 and 7.5 eV. By analyzing the
Si–O–O–Si dihedral angle distributions and the
corresponding electronic structure, we show that the low overlap between
O 2p states involved in the optical transitions together with the
dihedral angle site-to-site disorder are at the origin of this weak
and broad absorption. Moreover, the energy difference between the
two first optical transitions depends linearly on the energy difference
between the two first occupied defect-induced electronic states, i.e.,
depends on the dihedral angle of the bridge. This behavior may explain
the longstanding controversy regarding the optical signature of peroxy
bridges in amorphous SiO2. Because the correlation is independent
of the specific hosting hard material, the results apply whenever
the dihedral angle of the bridge has some degree of freedom.