Island nucleation in a reactive two-component system - art. no. 176105

The flux and temperature dependence of titanium silicide islands formed by reactive deposition near 500 degreesC indicate a critical nucleus containin g 2 Ti atoms and a single activation energy of E-d + 1/2 E-2 = 1.4 +/- 0.2 eV, where E-d and E-2 are the surface diffusion and cluster binding energie s, respectively. These values are not consistent with STM observations of T i dimer-vacancy hopping at lower temperatures and show that silicide island nucleation involves a different, highly mobile Ti species.