First principles calculations of the adsorption of acetylene on the Si(0 0 1) surface at low and full coverage

The adsorption of acetylene on the Si(0 0 1)-c(2 × 4) surface at low and full coverage is studied by first principles density functional calculations using the generalized gradient approximation. For a single acetylene molecule, the most stable configuration corresponds to the di-σ site, on-top of a silicon dimer. This configuration is 0.36 eV more stable than the end-bridge site between two adjacent Si dimers. However, if there are two acetylene molecules, the paired end bridge configuration becomes the most stable. We have also studied the kinetics of the adsorption of a single acetylene molecule. Our calculations show that the reaction is barrier-free for adsorption in the di-σ configuration, while there is an energy barrier of 0.19 eV for adsorption in the end-bridge site. At monolayer coverage, the most stable configuration corresponds to acetylene molecules in the pair-end bridge configuration, in agreement with previous calculations. We have found a noticeable coverage dependence only for the end-bridge site, but not for the di-σ. Our results show that to have an accurate picture of the adsorption of acetylene on the Si(0 0 1) surface, a large unit cell is needed.