Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
The adsorption of Al, Ga and Si on the Si(001) surface is studied by the ab initio molecular dynamics (Car-Parrinello) method based on the norm-conserving pseudopotential. In the stable structures obtained for half mono-layer coverage( ө = 1/2), these ad-atoms form dimers, but the dimer configurations are different. Al and Ga atoms form parallel dimers whose dimerization direction is parallel to that of substrate Si-dimers, while adsorbed Si atoms form (dense) orthogonal dimers. The electronic origin of the difference in the stable configurations among Al, Ga and Si ad-atoms is analyzed by calculating the local density of states (LDOS) of each atom.