On the growth kinetics of Ni(Pt) silicide thin films

Abstract

We report on the effect of Pt on the growth kinetics of d-Ni 2 Si and Ni 1Àx Pt x Si thin films formed by solid phase reaction of a Ni(Pt) alloyed thin film on Si(100). The study was performed by real-time Rutherford backscattering spectrometry examining the silicide growth rates for initial Pt concentrations of 0, 1, 3, 7, and 10 at. % relative to the Ni content. Pt was found to exert a drastic effect on the growth kinetics of both phases. d-Ni 2 Si growth is slowed down tremendously, which results in the simultaneous growth of this phase with Ni 1Àx Pt x Si. Activation energies extracted for the Ni 1Àx Pt x Si growth process exhibit an increase from E a ¼ 1.35 6 0.06 eV for binary NiSi to E a ¼ 2.7 6 0.2 eV for Ni 1Àx Pt x Si with an initial Pt concentration of 3 at. %. Further increasing the Pt content to 10 at. % merely increases the activation energy for Ni 1Àx Pt x Si growth to E a ¼ 3.1 6 0.5 eV. V C 2013 AIP Publishing LLC [http://dx

Fast in situ X‐ray analysis of Ni silicide formation

“…An averaged activation energy of (1.30 ± 0.15) eV was estimated for this process. This value is again in good agreement with literature values . This activation energy describes the lattice diffusion process of the most mobile species, Ni in this case .…”

“…Most of the early studies use Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) to determine the time and temperature depending layer thickness and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) to analyze the phases , but also in situ resistance measurements in combination with XRD and synchrotron in situ X‐ray reflectivity (XRR) are used . In recent times, the axial growth of nickel silicide in Si nanowires was studied as well as the effect of Pt on the growth kinetics of Ni 1− x Pt x Si thin films formed by solid phase reaction of a Ni(Pt) alloyed thin film on Si(100) .…”

Impurity-enhanced solid-state amorphization: the Ni–Si thin film reaction altered by nitrogen

“…It is well-documented that the addition of impurities can influence the reaction of a binary system of the Ni-Si system and the properties of the resulting films, 12 such as the morphological stability of the NiSi films 24 or the diffusion of the mobile element Ni through the silicide films. 18 However, little is known about the effect of impurities on the Ni-Si SSA reaction. In this paper, we investigate the effect of an impurity (specifically, nitrogen) on the solid-state amorphization during silicide formation (specifically, the reaction of thin Ni films with Si).…”

“…One binary reaction that has been studied extensively, is that of thin Ni films with silicon. 18,19 This reaction has proven scientifically interesting, with the appearance of metastable phases, 8 a strong interplay between texture and film evolution, 20 and a nucleation-limited growth of the final phase. 21 Additionally, investigation of this reaction is partly driven by the use of NiSi films as contact material in CMOS architecture.…”

Texture in thin film silicides and germanides: A review

“…[154][155][156] With this technique, a 75 nm thick Ni(Pt) alloy is deposited on a Si(001) substrate and annealed at a rate of 2 C/min. During the anneal, an RBS spectrum is collected every two minutes using a 2 MeV He þ beam which results in an RBS spectrum being collected every 4 C. Hence, this technique allows to probe elemental depth distribution during the silicidation with a relatively high temperature resolution, which allowed Demeulemeester et al to perform a thorough study of the Pt redistribution during Ni(Pt)Si formation.…”