How silicene on Ag(111) oxidizes: microscopic mechanism of the reaction of O(2) with silicene

We demonstrate, using first-principles molecular-dynamics simulations, that oxidation of silicene can easily take place either at low or high oxygen doses, which importantly helps clarify previous inconsistent reports on the oxidation of silicene on the Ag(111) substrate. We show that, while the energy barrier for an O(2) molecule reacting with a Si atom strongly depends on the position and orientation of the molecule, the O(2) molecule immediately dissociates and forms an Si-O-Si configuration once it finds a barrier-less chemisorption pathway around an outer Si atom of the silicene overlayer. A synergistic effect between the molecular dissociation and subsequent structural rearrangements is found to accelerate the oxidation process at a high oxygen dose. This effect also enhances self-organized formation of sp(3)-like tetrahedral configurations (consisting of Si and O atoms), which results in collapse of the two-dimensional silicene structure and its exfoliation from the substrate. We also find that the electronic properties of the silicene can be significantly altered by oxidation. The present findings suggest that low flux and low temperature of the oxygen gas are key to controlling oxidation of silicene.