143Modern ideas about the mechanisms of diffusion in crystals and liquids were formed in the 1960s, mainly owing to computer simulation by the molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo methods. The problem of diffusion mechanisms in amorphous media is much more complicated than that in crystals and has not yet been completely solved. In particular, this refers to the diffusion of particles in systems that form a low mobile frame and are coupled either by strong cova lent bonds (as in amorphous silicon) or by strong Cou lomb interaction (as in silica). The methods of the the oretical analysis of the diffusion processes in these sys tems have been elaborated insufficiently (see [1]). In contrast to the case of diffusion in crystalline media with low potential barriers (V barrier ≈ (1-10)kT) for hopping of particles, when the molecular dynamics method can be applied, the hopping frequency of atoms through barriers becomes extremely low in structures with high potential barriers (the rare event problem). Therefore, these systems, particularly in the amorphous state, cannot be studied directly by the molecular dynamics method. To speed up the simula tion of the processes of activation hopping for these cases, an activation-relaxation technique (ART) was elaborated recently. It makes it possible to simulate the structure and activation processes in amorphous com pounds (see [2,3]). This method is based on the calcu lation of the transition states (saddle points) of the sys tem (activation) at arbitrarily chosen vectors of motion of atoms by means of the calculation of the forces acting on atoms, and also motion in the direc tion to the nearest saddle point. Atoms arbitrarily relaxed (relaxation) from the transition states to the nearest energy minima defining the amorphous state. The further development of this approach was the uni fication of the kinetic Monte Carlo algorithm and the ART method (the kinetic activation-relaxation tech nique (k ART)), which accelerates the convergence of this algorithm (see [4]). When the method of acceler ated dynamics is developed, it is necessary to mention also the recently elaborated bias potential method [5], the hyperdynamics method [6], and the temperature accelerated dynamics method [7]. The WootenWiner-Weaire algorithm [8], which is based on the random rearrangements of the nearest atoms, is also used to simulate the amorphous structure. It leads to the change in the number and directions of the chem ical bonds between the nearest environment of atoms and the subsequent relaxation of the structure by numerical annealing. The result of the simulation of silicon and germanium by this method showed good coincidence with the experiment for the radial distri bution function of atoms [8]. Unfortunately, all these methods have been applied exclusively to systems that are described either by the simplified embedded atom model or by empirically selected potentials with the The effect of the lattice deformation on potential barriers for the motion of a lithium atom in crystalline sili con has ...