In 2005, a mode of desorption was discovered by John Weaver et al. that has elements of both thermal and electron stimulated desorption. This mode is of particular interest as desorption can occur in a closed system without external stimulus. The mode was discovered whilst investigating bromine absorbed on silicone using scanning tunnelling microscopy. In the experiment, the Si-Br wafers were heated to temperatures ranging from 620 to 775 K. However, it was not simple thermal desorption bond breaking that was observed as the activation energies calculated from Arrhenius plots were found to be lower than the Si-Br bond strength. Instead, the optical phonons of the Silicon weaken the surface bond through vibrations and also provide the energy for electron to excite to the antibonding state.