EPL, 84 (2008) 66005
DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/84/66005

Determination of the Si-Si bond energy from the temperature dependence of elastic modulus and surface tension

G. Ouyang^{1, 2}, M. X. Gu¹, S. Y. Fu³, C. Q. Sun¹ and W. G. Zhu<sup>1

1</sup>   School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University - Singapore 639798, Singapore
²   Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Structures and Quantum Control of Ministry of Education, and Department of Physics, Hunan Normal University - Changsha 410081, China
³   Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences - Beijing, 100080, China

gangouy@hunnu.edu.cn
ecqsun@ntu.edu.sg

received 30 September 2008; accepted in final form 14 November 2008; published December 2008
published online 12 January 2009

Abstract
We report a theoretical method to obtain the single-bond energy derivative from temperature-dependent Young's modulus and surface tension based on the extension of the recently developed bond-order-length-strength correlation mechanism to the temperature domain. Reproducing simultaneously the measured physical quantities of the Si specimen could reveal the information on the Si-Si single-bond energy. It is shown that the single-bond energy and the response of the stimulus of temperature change can be connected to the bulk properties. Analytical solutions also provide a consistent understanding of the interdependence of these quantities and their commonly atomistic origin as arising from thermally driven bond expansion and bond weakening, which is beyond the scope of conventional approaches.

PACS
61.50.Lt - Crystal binding; cohesive energy.
62.20.de - Elastic moduli.

© EPLA 2008