skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Dissociative adsorption of CH{sub 3}X (X = Br and Cl) on a silicon(100) surface revisited by density functional theory

Journal Article · · Journal of Chemical Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4899841· OSTI ID:22310786
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Department of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Functional Materials and Micro-nano Devices, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872 (China)
  2. Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories, Department of Chemistry and Institute of Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6 (Canada)

During the dissociative adsorption on a solid surface, the substrate usually participates in a passive manner to accommodate fragments produced upon the cleavage of the internal bond(s) of a (transient) molecular adsorbate. This simple picture, however, neglects the flexibility of surface atoms. Here, we report a Density Functional Theory study to revisit our early studies of the dissociative adsorption of CH{sub 3}X (X = Br and Cl) on Si(100). We have identified a new reaction pathway, which involves a flip of a silicon dimer; this new pathway agrees better with experiments. For our main exemplar of CH{sub 3}Br, insights have been gained using a simple model that involves a three-atom reactive center, Br-C-Si. When the silicon dimer flips, the interaction between C and Si in the Br-C-Si center is enhanced, evident in the increased energy-split of the frontier orbitals. We also examine how the dissociation dynamics of CH{sub 3}Br is altered on a heterodimer (Si-Al, Si-P, and Si-Ge) in a Si(100) surface. In each case, we conclude, on the basis of computed reaction pathways, that no heterodimer flipping is involved before the system transverses the transition state to dissociative adsorption.

OSTI ID:
22310786
Journal Information:
Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 141, Issue 17; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-9606
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English