Effect of strain on the energetics and kinetics of dissociation of Sb₄ on Ge(001)

A comprehensive search for the precursor dissociation of antimony tetramers on Ge(001) with strain was carried out using first-principles calculations. In contrast to previous theoretical studies on Si(001) Phys. Rev. Lett. 97 046103 (2006) and in agreement with recent experiments, we reveal a square intermediate anisotropy dissociation pathway across the surface dimer row, where the dissociation energetics and kinetics can be qualitatively altered by the strain and lead to divergent dissociation pathways and patterns with substrate-dimer-bond breaking due to the weak interactions between Ge-Ge and Sb-Ge bonds.