Energetics and stability of dangling-bond silicon wires on H passivated Si(100).

We evaluate the electronic, geometric and energetic properties of quasi 1D wires formed by dangling-bonds on Si(100)-H(2 × 1). The calculations are performed with density functional theory (DFT). Infinite wires are found to be insulating and Peierls distorted, however finite wires develop localized electronic states that can be of great use for atomic scale devices. The ground state solution of finite wires does not correspond to a geometrical distortion but rather to an antiferromagnetic ordering. For the stability of wires, the presence of abundant H atoms in nearby Si atoms can be a problem. We have evaluated the energy barriers for intradimer and intrarow diffusion, finding all of them about 1 eV or larger, even in the case where a H impurity is already sitting on the wire. These results are encouraging for using dangling-bond wires in future devices.

Long-range repulsive interaction between molecules on a metal surface induced by charge transfer.

The adsorption of a molecular electron donor on Au(111) is characterized by the spontaneous formation of a superlattice of monomers spaced several nanometers apart. The coverage-dependent molecular pair distributions obtained from scanning tunneling microscopy data reveal an intermolecular long-range repulsive potential, which decreases as the inverse of the molecular separation. Density functional theory calculations show a charge accumulation in the molecules due to electron donation into the metal. Our results suggest that electrostatic repulsion between molecules persists on the surface of a metal.