Field Evaporation Of Grounded Arsenic Doped Silicon Clusters

We have investigated the field evaporation of grounded arsenic (As) doped silicon (Si) clusters composed of 52 atoms with density functional theory (DFT) to mimic Si nano structures of hundreds of nanometers long standing on a substrate. Six cluster structures with different As doping concentrations and dopant locations are studied. The critical evaporation electric fields are found to be lower for clusters with higher doping concentrations and doping sites closer to the surface. We attribute the difference to the difference in binding energies corresponding to the different As-doping concentrations and to the doping locations. Our theoretical study could shed light on the stability of nano apexes under high electric field.