Chemistry of Nanoscale Semiconductor Clusters

Abstract

The ground state structures of small silicon clusters are determined through exhaustive tight-binding molecular dynamics simulation studies. These simulations revealed that \Si{11} is an icosahedron with one missing cap, \Si{12} is a complete icosahedron, \Si{13} is a surface capped icosahedron, \Si{14} is a 4-4-4 layer structure with two caps, \Si{15} is a 1-5-3-5-1 layer structure, and \Si{16} is a partially closed cage consisting of five-membered rings. The characteristic feature of these clusters is that they are all surface. Smalley and co-workers discovered that chemisorption reactivities of silicon clusters vary over three orders of magnitude as a function of cluster size. In particular, they found that \Si{33}, \Si{39}, and \Si{45} clusters are least reactive towards various reagents compared to their immediate neighbors in size. We provide insights into this observed reactivity pattern through our stuffed fullerene model. This structural model consists of bulk-like core of five atoms surrounded by fullerene-like surface. Reconstruction of the ideal fullerene geometry gives rise to four-fold coordinated crown atoms and $π$-bonded dimer pairs. This model yields unique structures for \Si{33}, \Si{39}, and \Si{45} clusters without any dangling bonds and thus explains their lowest reactivity towards chemisorption of closed shell reagents. We also explain why a) these clusters are substantially unreactive compared to bulk surfaces and b) dissociative chemisorption occurs on bulk surfaces while molecular chemisorption occurs on cluster surfaces. Finally, experiments on Si$_x$X$_y$ (X = B, Al, Ga, P, As, AlP, GaAs) are suggested as a means of verifying the proposed model.