Eur. Phys. J. B 66, 427-431 (2008)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2008-00456-6

All-optical determination of initial oxidation of Si(100) and its kinetics

¹ Institute of Nano-Sciences of Paris, UMR CNRS 7588, Universities Paris VI and Paris VII, 140 Rue de Lourmel, 75015 Paris, France
² European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF), CNISM-CNR-INFM, and Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Università di Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
³ European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF), Institut für Festkörpertheorie und-optik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany
⁴ European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF), NAST and Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133 Roma, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a giovanni.onida@unimi.it

Received: 8 August 2008
Revised: 24 October 2008
Published online: 18 December 2008

Abstract

By comparison of measured and ab initio calculated surface optical spectra we demonstrate that two main oxidation processes initially occur after dissociation of oxygen molecules, forming in both cases Si–O–Si entities: (i) breaking of Si dimers by incorporation of oxygen atoms; (ii) incorporation into the silicon backbonds. The kinetics up to half-monolayer coverage is determined, and explained in terms of Langmuir-like adsorption mechanisms with different probabilities.