The process of oxygen chemisorption on the Si(111) surface

The chemisorption of oxygen on the Si(111) surface has been studied by the ASED-MO method. Three steps of the initial oxidation process have been proposed. The first step is molecular oxygen chemisorption. The second step is that of dissociated oxygen chemisorption in which the atomic short bridge site (between the first layer and second layer silicon atoms) can be occupied only after the saturation of the dangling bonds of the surface silicon with oxygen. The third step is the diffusion of atomic oxygen from the short bridge positions into the bulk of silicon to form an SiO₂ film. For molecular chemisorption, both the peroxy vertical and peroxy bridge models are possible although the peroxy vertical model is the more stable. The dissociated atomic oxygen can chemisorb for both the on-top and the short bridge models. Our results can explain, and are consistent with, most experimental results.