Initial oxidation process on viinal Si(001) surface: ReaxFF based on molecular dynamics simulation

Si oxidation is a key process in developing silicon devices, such as highly integrated metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors and antireflection-coating (ARC) on solar cell substrate. Many experimental and theoritical studies have been carried out for elucidating oxidation processes and adsorption structure using ab initio total energy and electronic structure calcultaions. However, the initial oxidation processes at step edge on vicinal Si surface have not been studied using the ReaxFF reactive force field. In this work, strucutural change, charge distribution of oxidized Si throughout the depth from Si surface were observed during oxidation processes on vicinal Si(001) surface inclined by $10.5^{\circ}$ of miscut angle toward [100]. Adsorption energys of step edge and flat terrace were calculated to compare the oxidation reaction at step edge and flat terrace on Si surface.