Growth of epitaxial CoSi2 films on Si(100) substrates through direct solidphase reaction between crystalline Co films and Si substrates

Epitaxial CoSi2 films were grown on Si(1 0 0) substrates via direct solid-p hase reaction between crystalline (0 0 2) textured Co films and the Si subs trates. Rutherford backscattering/channeling spectrometry and high-resoluti on transmission electron microscopy were performed to evaluate the epitaxia l quality of the CoSi2 films. A good channeling chi(min) value of 20% was m easured For the CoSi2 films formed alter rapid thermal annealing at 850 deg rees C, which is comparable to that of the CoSi2 films obtained by Ti-inter layer mediated epitaxy (TIME). Similar with TIME, the intermediate phase of Co2Si was skipped in this case. The concept of "thermodynamic barrier" has been employed to explain the improvement In the epitaxy of CoSi2 films com pared with the reaction between amorphous Co films and Si substrates. (C) 2 000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.