Characterization of silicon thin overlayers on rutile TiO2 (110)-(1x1)

Silicon thin films for coverages ($\theta$) between 0.3 and 3 monolayers have been grown on rutile \ce{TiO2}(110)-(1x1) at room temperature and studied by x-ray and ultra-violet photoelectron spectroscopies, Auger electron spectroscopy, and low energy electron diffraction (LEED). A clear evidence of...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Abad, José M., González, Carlos, Andrés, Pedro L. de, Román García, Elisa Leonor
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2010
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/36598
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/36598
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:rutile
titanium dioxide
(110)-1x1
silicon oxide
surface oxidation
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS)
Auger electrons spectroscopy (AES)
density functional theory (DFT)
Descripción
Sumario:Silicon thin films for coverages ($\theta$) between 0.3 and 3 monolayers have been grown on rutile \ce{TiO2}(110)-(1x1) at room temperature and studied by x-ray and ultra-violet photoelectron spectroscopies, Auger electron spectroscopy, and low energy electron diffraction (LEED). A clear evidence of a strong \ce{Si}/\ce{TiO2} interaction consistent with the high affinity of O for Si has been found. The Ti cations on the substrate are reduced, while the Si film is oxidized, yielding \ce{SiO2} and a mixture of silicon suboxides. Neutral Si atoms are observed at a coverage of 3 monolayers. At the interface region we observe the formation of cross-linking Ti-O-Si bonds. The thin Si overlayer strongly attenuates the $(1 \times 1)$ LEED pattern from the substrate. Finally, thermal annealing results in the improvement of the \ce{SiO2} stoichiometry, but the surface order is not recovered. Using ab-initio density functional theory we have obtained optimum geometrical configurations and corresponding density of states for $\frac{1}{3} \le \theta \le 1$ monolayers of Si adsorbed on the $1 \times 1$ two-dimensional unit cell.