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Oxidation of hydrogenated Si(111) by a radical propagation mechanism

Journal of Physical Chemistry C, ISSN: 1932-7455, Vol: 116, Issue: 46, Page: 24607-24615
2012
  • 15
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  • 24
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Metrics Details

  • Citations
    15
    • Citation Indexes
      15
  • Captures
    24

Article Description

The reactivity of the hydrogenated Si(111) surface toward HO and O was investigated in order to elucidate the mechanism of oxidation of the first silicon bilayer in air. Density functional theory calculations were performed to identify elementary reaction steps and their corresponding activation energy barriers. The perfect surface is unreactive toward HO and O at room temperature as deduced from the high energy barriers found. However, isolated Si dangling bonds, (Si )Si·, surrounded by SiH groups, readily react with O (but not with HO), producing a silanone intermediate of the form (SiO)SiO· where one of the silicon back bonds is oxidized. This intermediate is reached after a series of elementary steps with very small activation energy barriers. In the next step, the oxygen atom of the silanone group inserts into a Si-Si back bond, and the surface silicon dangling bond is regenerated as a (SiO)Si· moiety in which the silyl group has two oxidized back bonds. This initiates a surface chain reaction in which the oxidized silyl group abstracts a hydrogen atom from a neighboring SiH thus producing a new Si dangling bond that is oxidized by O in the next step of the chain reaction. This radical propagation mechanism explains the two-dimensional oxide growth in air and the lack of surface SiOH groups. Therefore, the oxidation of the H-Si(111) surface requires the presence of radicals in air that, upon reaction with the hydrogenated surface, produce silicon dangling bonds where the oxidation begins and propagates by hydrogen abstraction from nonoxidized neighboring SiH groups. © 2012 American Chemical Society.

Bibliographic Details

Federico A. Soria; Eduardo M. Patrito; Patricia Paredes-Olivera

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Materials Science; Energy; Chemistry

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