Nickel silicides are grown on amorphous silicon and silicon-germanium films
at temperatures less than or equal to 300 degrees C. Nickel silicides with
sheet resistance of 11 and 15 Omega/square were fabricated on amorphous si
licon films at temperatures of 300 and 250 degrees C, respectively. These r
esistances are comparable to silicides formed on single-crystal silicon. Su
ch low resistances could also be obtained in samples where nickel was annea
led with amorphous silicon-germanium at 300 degrees C for 30 min; however,
the resistances of the same films were considerably higher when the anneali
ng temperature was 250 degrees C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy seems to
suggest that the high resistance in silicon- germanium samples which were
annealed at 250 degrees C was caused by formation of a Ni-Si-Ge cluster thr
ough physical mixing of atoms. However, at a temperature of 300 degrees C,
silicon and germanium reacted with nickel in separate layers. (C) 1998 The
Electrochemical Society. S1099-0062(98)04-105-4. All rights reserved.