Formation of Hydroxyl Radical from the Hydrogen Chemisorbed Silicon Surface by Incident Oxygen Atoms

Abstract

We have calculated the probability of the OH formation and energy deposit of the reaction exothermicity in the newly formed OH, particularly in its vibrational motion, in the gas-surface reaction O(g) + H(ad)/Si → OH(g) + Si on the basis of the collision-induced Eley-Rideal mechanism. The reaction probability of the OH formation increases linearly with initial excitation of the HSi vibration. The translational and vibrational motions share most of the energy when the H-Si vibration is initially in the ground state. But, when the initial excitation increases, the vibrational energy of OH rises accordingly, while the energies shared by other motions vary only slightly. The product vibrational excitation is significant and the population distribution is inverted. Flow of energy between the reaction zone and the solid has been incorporated in trajectory calculations. The amount of energy propagated into the solid is only a few percent of the available energy released in the OH formation.