Dynamical Steric Effect in the Decomposition of Methyl Chloride on a Silicon Surface

Abstract

We report results of a study on the incident energy and the surface-temperature dependence of the steric effects in the dissociative adsorption of CH3Cl on a Si{100} surface. Data presented here show that the initial sticking probability for the Cl-end collision is larger at an incident energy of 120 meV than that in the CH3-end collision. Furthermore, this steric preference is quite sensitive to the kinetic energy and the rotational state of CH3Cl and the surface temperature. This study shows that the nonequilibrium surface trapping plays a key role in the initial step of the decomposition of CH3Cl on Si{100}.