Fermi level pinning and the charge transfer contribution to the energy of adsorption at semiconducting surfaces

Abstract

It is shown that charge transfer, the process analogous to formation of semiconductor p-n junction, contributes significantly to adsorption energy at semiconductor surfaces. For the processes without the charge transfer, such as molecular adsorption of closed shell systems, the adsorption energy is determined by the bonding only. In the case involving charge transfer, such as open shell systems like metal atoms or the dissociating molecules, the energy attains different value for the Fermi level differently pinned. The Density Functional Theory (DFT) simulation of species adsorption at different surfaces, such as SiC(0001) or GaN(0001) confirms these predictions: the molecular adsorption is independent on the coverage, while the dissociative process adsorption energy varies by several electronvolts.