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The impact of non-ideal surfaces on the solid-water interaction: a time-resolved adsorption study

by Matthias M. May, Helena Stange, Jonas Weinrich, Thomas Hannappel, Oliver Supplie

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Submission summary

Authors (as registered SciPost users): Matthias May · Oliver Supplie
Submission information
Preprint Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.08612v1  (pdf)
Date submitted: March 21, 2019, 1 a.m.
Submitted by: Matthias May
Submitted to: SciPost Physics
Ontological classification
Academic field: Physics
Specialties:
  • Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics - Experiment
  • Condensed Matter Physics - Experiment
Approach: Experimental

Abstract

The initial interaction of water with semiconductors determines the electronic structure of the solid-liquid interface. The exact nature of this interaction is, however, often unknown. Here, we study gallium phosphide-based surfaces exposed to H2O by means of in situ reflection anisotropy spectroscopy. We show that the introduction of typical imperfections in the form of surface steps or trace contaminants not only changes the dynamics of the interaction, but also its qualitative nature. This emphasises the challenges for the comparability of experiments with (idealised) electronic structure models for electrochemistry.

Current status:
Has been resubmitted

Reports on this Submission

Report #1 by Anonymous (Referee 1) on 2019-4-23 (Invited Report)

  • Cite as: Anonymous, Report on arXiv:1903.08612v1, delivered 2019-04-23, doi: 10.21468/SciPost.Report.920

Strengths

1) molecule-semiconductor interactions are an important field of study 2) a combination of complementary experimental techniques was used 3) various types of surfaces were compared 4) interesting differences in the adsorption behavior were found and described

Weaknesses

The paper has only very few weaknesses, a few clarifications can be provided as requested under 'changes'.

Report

The authors present an interesting and well-performed study on interactions between water molecules and GaP-type semiconductor surfaces. The physics and chemistry of molecular interactions at semiconductor surfaces remains a research area with many open questions, and this particular study makes a valuable effort towards elucidating these interactions for this particular system, using a combination of experimental techniques including reflection anisotropy spectroscopy (RAS), low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and XPS, and comparing bare, nitrogen-doped, and carbon contaminated surfaces, as well as surfaces containing many terrace steps. They find and describe interesting differences between the various types of surfaces. The experiments are described in great detail, the analysis is thorough and the scientific interpretation is sound. I recommend publication in SciPost Physics after the following minor concerns have been addressed.

Requested changes

1) The surface terrace steps are an important parameter in the story, in particular in section 3.2. However, apart from referring to Refs 19 and 20, the authors do not show the density or orientation of the terrace steps. Is it possible to include e.g. AFM images of the various surfaces to show direct evidence of the presence and configuration of the surface terrace steps? And to what extent are the ‘perfect-cut’ surfaces free of surface steps? 2) Please clarify “V-rich” in the sentence discussing Figure 7 on p. 9. Does this refer to vanadium or to e.g. a surface feature?

  • validity: high
  • significance: good
  • originality: good
  • clarity: high
  • formatting: good
  • grammar: excellent

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