Systematic spatial and stoichiometric screening towards understanding the surface of ultrasmall oxygenated silicon nanocrystal

In most of the realistic ab initio and model calculations which have appeared on the emission of light from silicon nanocrystals, the role of surface oxygen has been usually ignored, underestimated or completely ruled out. We investigate theoretically, by density functional theory (DFT/B3LYP) possible modes of oxygen bonding in hydrogen terminated silicon quantum dots using as a representative case of the Si29 nanocrystal. We have considered Bridge-bonded oxygen (BBO), Doubly-bonded oxygen (DBO), hydroxyl (OH) and Mix of these oxidizing agents. Due to stoichiometry, all comparisons performed are unbiased with respect to composition whereas spatial distribution of oxygen species pointed out drastic change in electronic and cohesive characteristics of nanocrytals. From an overall perspective of this study, it is shown that bridge bonded oxygenated Si nanocrystals accompanied by Mix have higher binding energies and large electronic gap compared to nanocrystals with doubly bonded oxygen atoms. In addition, it is observed that the presence of OH along with BBO, DBO and mixed configurations further lowers electronic gaps and binding energies but trends in same fashion. It is also demonstrated that within same composition, oxidizing constituent, along with their spatial distribution substantially alters binding energy, highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) gap (up to 1.48 eV) and localization of frontier orbitals. © 2016 Elsevier B.V