M. Seibt et al., NANOSCALE OBSERVATION OF A GRAIN-BOUNDARY RELATED GROWTH MODE IN THIN-FILM REACTIONS, Physical review letters, 80(4), 1998, pp. 774-777
We report the atomic scale observation of a thin film growth mode rela
ted to grain boundaries in multilayers of polycrystalline gold and amo
rphous silicon. Using differential scanning calorimetry, in situ x-ray
diffraction, and high-resolution electron microscopy, we observe sili
cide nucleation to take place at grain boundaries in the polycrystalli
ne gold films followed by lateral silicide growth parallel to gold/sil
icon interfaces. This growth mode is related to solid-state reactions
at low temperatures where atomic transport is restricted to grain and
interphase boundaries. It demonstrates the importance of thin film mic
rostructure for phase selection during thin film reactions at low temp
eratures.