title: Scanning tunneling microscopy of ethylated Si(111) surfaces prepared by a chlorination/alkylation process.
abstract: Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and computational modeling have been used to study the structure of ethyl-terminated Si(111) surfaces. The ethyl-terminated surface was prepared by treating the H-terminated Si(111) surface with PCl5 to form a Cl-terminated Si(111) surface with subsequent exposure to C(2)H(5)MgCl in tetrahydrofuran to produce an alkylated Si(111) surface. The STM data at 77 K revealed local, close-packed, and relatively ordered regions with a nearest-neighbor spacing of 0.38 nm as well as disordered regions. The average spot density corresponded to approximately 85% of the density of Si atop sites on an unreconstructed Si(111) surface. Molecular dynamics simulations of a Si(111) surface randomly populated with ethyl groups to a total coverage of approximately 80% confirmed that the ethyl-terminated Si(111) surface, in theory, can assume reasonable packing arrangements to accommodate such a high surface coverage, which could be produced by an exoergic surface functionalization route such as the two-step chlorination/alkylation process. Hence, it is possible to consistently interpret the STM data within a model suggested by recent X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic data and infrared absorption data, which indicate that the two-step halogenation/alkylation method can provide a relatively high coverage of ethyl groups on Si(111) surfaces.
authors.affiliation: Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beckman Institute and Kavli Nanoscience Institute, 127-72, Noyes Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
authors.forename: Hongbin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Lauren J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Webb
authors.forename: Santiago D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Solares
authors.forename: Peigen
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: William A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Goddard
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Heath
authors.forename: Nathan S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Lewis