Thermodynamic stability and structure of cuprous chloride surfaces: a DFT investigation.

Density functional theory together with ab initio atomistic thermodynamics has been utilized to study the structures and stabilities of the low index CuCl surfaces. It is shown that the Cl-terminated structures are more stable than the Cu-terminated configurations, and that the defective CuCl(110)-Cu structure is more stable than the stoichiometric CuCl(110) surface. The equilibrium shape of a cuprous chloride nanostructure terminated by low-index CuCl surfaces has also been predicted using a Wulff construction. It was found that the (110) facets dominate at low chlorine concentration. As the chlorine concentration is increased, however, the contributions of the (100) and (111) facets to the Wulff construction also increase giving the crystal a semi-prism shape. At high chlorine concentration, and close to the rich limit, the (111) facets were found to be the only contributors to the Wulff construction, resulting in prismatic nanocrystals.

Surface electronic structure calculations using the MBJLDA potential: application to Si(111)2 × 1.

The Si(111)2 × 1 surface has been widely studied via a range of different experimental and theoretical techniques, and found to adopt a π-bonded chain configuration. To determine an accurate electronic structure for this system, however, it has been found necessary to use sophisticated and very computationally expensive methods such as GW or hybrid functionals. In this article, we show that the MBJLDA approach, originally proposed by Tran and Blaha for bulk materials (Tran and Blaha, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2009, 102, 226401), yields results which are comparable to GW, and generally superior to those obtained from hybrid functional density functional theory calculations. The MBJLDA method is also substantially more computationally efficient. A procedure and justification for the application of the MBJLDA approach to surfaces in general is also provided.

Guided self-assembly of metal atoms on silicon using organic-molecule templating.

Assembling molecular components into low-dimensional structures offers new opportunities for nanoscale device applications. Here we describe the self-assembly of indium atoms into metallic chains on the silicon (001) surface using adsorbed benzonitrile molecules as nucleation and termination sites. Critically, individual benzonitrile adsorbates can be manipulated using scanning tunneling microscopy. This affords control over the position and orientation of the molecular adsorbates, which in turn determine the origin, direction, and length of the self-assembled metallic chains.

An equilibrium ab initio atomistic thermodynamics study of chlorine adsorption on the Cu(001) surface.

The effect of chlorine (Cl) chemisorption on the energetics and atomic structure of the Cu(001) surface over a wide range of chlorine pressures and temperatures has been studied using equilibrium ab initio atomistic thermodynamics to elucidate the formation of cuprous chloride (CuCl) as part of the Deacon reaction on copper metal. The calculated surface free energies show that the 1/2 monolayer (ML) c(2 × 2)-Cl phase with chlorine atoms adsorbed at the hollow sites is the most stable structure for a wide range of Cl chemical potential, in agreement with experimental observations. It is also found that at very low pressure and exposure, but elevated temperature, the 1/9 ML and 1/4 ML phases become the most stable. By contrast, a high coverage of Cl does not lead to thermodynamically stable geometries. The subsurface adsorption of Cl atoms, however, dramatically increases the stability of the 1 ML and 2 ML adsorption configurations providing a possible pathway for the formation of the bulk-chloride surface phases in the kinetic regime.

Dimer pinning and the assignment of semiconductor-adsorbate surface structures.

It has been observed in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) that the adsorption of molecules on the (001) surface of a Group IV semiconductor can lead to an asymmetric ordering of the dimers immediately adjacent to the adsorbate. This so-called pinning may occur along the dimer row on only one, or both sides of the adsorbate. Here we present a straightforward methodology for predicting such pinning and illustrate this approach for several different adsorbate structures on the Si(001) surface. This approach extends earlier work by including the effects of coupling across the adsorbate as well as the nearest-neighbor interactions between the chemisorbed dimer and its adjacent dimers. The results are shown to be in excellent agreement with the room temperature experimental STM data. The examples also show how this approach can serve as a powerful tool for discriminating between alternative possible adsorbate structures on a dimerized semiconductor (001) surface, especially in cases of molecular adsorption where the STM measurements provide insufficient details of the underlying atomic structure.

A first-principles density functional study of chlorophenol adsorption on Cu2O(110):CuO.

First-principles density functional theory and a periodic-slab model have been employed to explore the adsorption of a two-chlorophenol molecule on a Cu(2)O(110) surface containing surface Cu-O bonds, namely, the Cu(2)O(110):CuO surface. The two-chlorophenol molecule is found to interact very weakly with the Cu(2)O(110):CuO surface, forming several vertical and flat orientations. These weakly bound states tend to result from interaction between the phenolic hydrogen and an oxygen surface atom. The formation of a two-chlorophenoxy moiety and an isolated hydrogen on the Cu(2)O(110):CuO surface from a vacuum two-chlorophenol molecule is determined to have an endothermicity of 8.2 kcal/mol (0.37 eV). The energy required to form a two-chlorophenoxy radical in the gas phase is also found to be much smaller when assisted by the Cu(2)O(110):CuO surface than direct breaking of the hydroxyl bond of a free two-chlorophenol molecule. The calculated binding energy of a two-chlorophenoxy radical adsorbed directly onto the Cu(2)O(110):CuO surface is -12.5 kcal/mol (0.54 eV). The Cu(2)O(110):CuO and Cu(100) surfaces are found to have similar energy barriers for forming a surface-bound two-chlorophenoxy moiety from the adsorption of a two-chlorophenol molecule.

Phosphine dissociation and diffusion on Si(001) observed at the atomic scale.

A detailed atomic-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory study of the adsorption, dissociation, and surface diffusion of phosphine (PH(3)) on Si(001) is presented. Adsorbate coverages from approximately 0.01 monolayer to saturation are investigated, and adsorption is performed at room temperature and 120 K. It is shown that PH(3) dissociates upon adsorption to Si(001) at room temperature to produce both PH(2) + H and PH + 2H. These appear in atomic-resolution STM images as features asymmetric-about and centered-upon the dimer rows, respectively. The ratio of PH(2) to PH is a function of both dose rate and temperature, and the dissociation of PH(2) to PH occurs on a time scale of minutes at room temperature. Time-resolved in situ STM observations of these adsorbates show the surface diffusion of PH(2) adsorbates (mediated by its lone pair electrons) and the dissociation of PH(2) to PH. The surface diffusion of PH(2) results in the formation of hemihydride dimers on low-dosed Si(001) surfaces and the ordering of PH molecules along dimer rows at saturation coverages. The observations presented here have important implications for the fabrication of atomic-scale P dopant structures in Si, and the methodology is applicable to other emerging areas of nanotechnology, such as molecular electronics, where unambiguous molecular identification using STM is necessary.

An improved density functional theory description of the Ge(100)c(4×2) surface using the MBJLDA xc potential and spin-orbit interactions.

The MBJLDA xc potential (modified Becke-Johnson exchange potential with local density approximation correlation) proposed by Tran and Blaha has been designed and shown to significantly improve the description of the fundamental energy gaps of a wide range of bulk materials. Recently we reported that combining this MBJLDA xc potential with spin-orbit interactions and local density approximation pseudopotentials within the plane wave density functional method led to results for bulk germanium that were at least as accurate as those obtained from far more sophisticated and computationally expensive methods such as the GW method. Here we demonstrate that the application of this approach to the Ge(100)c(4×2) surface yields results that are in excellent agreement with the available experimental data.

Acetone on silicon (001): ambiphilic molecule meets ambiphilic surface.

Using density functional theory, we report detailed reaction path calculations for the reaction of acetone with the silicon (001) surface. We identify the key reaction intermediates of dissociative adsorption and the transition states between them. This resolves the identity of the one-dimer intermediate observed in STM experiments and its role in the formation of several two-dimer-wide end products of dissociation. Key to the understanding of the dissociation mechanism is the ambiphilic character of the two reactants, that is the simultaneous expression of electrophilic and nucleophilic reactivities in both the surface and the acetone molecule.

Organic bonding to silicon via a carbonyl group: new insights from atomic-scale images.

The ability to covalently attach organic molecules to semiconductor surfaces in a controllable and selective manner is currently receiving much attention due to the potential for creating hybrid silicon-organic molecular-electronic devices. Here we use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory calculations to study the adsorption of a simple ketone [acetone; (CH(3))(2)CO] to the silicon (001) surface. We show both bias and time-dependent STM images and their agreement with total energy DFT calculations, simulated STM images, and published spectroscopic data. We investigate the stability of the resulting adsorbate structures with respect to temperature and applied STM tip bias and current. We demonstrate the ability to convert from the kinetically favored single-dimer alpha-H cleavage adsorbate structure to thermodynamically favored bridge-bonded adsorbate structures. This can be performed for the entire surface using a thermal anneal or, for individual molecules, using the highly confined electron beam of the STM tip. We propose the use of the carbonyl functional group to tether organic molecules to silicon may lead to increased stability of the adsorbates with respect to current-voltage characterization. This has important implications for the creation of robust single-molecule devices.