  Realistic models of amorphous ZrO2 are generated in a ``melt-and-quench''
fashion using ab-initio molecular dynamics in a plane-wave pseudopotential
formulation of density-functional theory. The structural properties of the
resulting amorphous models are analyzed, with special attention to coordination
statistics. The vibrational and dielectric properties of one of these models
are then investigated from first principles using linear-response methods. The
electronic dielectric constant and Born effective charges are found to be very
similar to those of the crystalline phases. Encouragingly, the predicted total
static dielectric constant is about 22, comparable to that of the monoclinic
phase. This work is motivated by the search for improved gate dielectric
materials for sub-0.1 micron CMOS technology, and may also have implications
for HfO2 and for silicates of ZrO2 and HfO2.
