Dissociative adsorption of methyl chloride on Si(001) studied by scanning tunneling microscopy.

Chemical reactions of methyl chloride (CH3Cl) on a clean Si(001) surface at approximately 300 K are studied by means of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) under ultra-high-vacuum conditions. The features appearing in the STM images are identified with the possible products of dissociated CH3 and Cl, and their distribution is also evaluated as well as the development of their distribution with increasing CH(3)Cl doses. The amount of Cl atoms found on the surface is approximately twice as large as that of the CH3 molecules. This leads to the conclusion that dissociative adsorption of CH3Cl on Si occurs in different processes: CH3Cl(precursor) --> CH3(ad) + Cl(ad) and CH3Cl(precursor) --> CH3(gas) + Cl(ad).