MICRO-RAMAN STUDY OF THE FACTORS LIMITING THE TISI2 C54 PHASE-FORMATION IN SUBMICRON PATTERNS

A detailed micro-Raman analysis of the C49-C54 structural phase transf ormation in a TiSi2 patterned film is reported. These results emphasis e that a reduced density of triple-grain boundaries, considered to be the nucleation sites of the C54 phase, is not sufficient to explain th e observed difficulty to convert the C49 in small areas. Other effects , such as the C54 effective nucleation probability on a given nucleati on centre and the C54 ability to propagate through the film, play a ke y role in the C49-C54 conversion process, and affect the transition te mperature required for sub-micron devices.