Planar defects and double-domain epitaxy in epitaxial YSi2−x and ErSi2−x thin films on Si substrates

Abstract

Interfacial reactions of Y and Er thin films on both (111)Si and (001)Si have been studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Epitaxial rare-earth (RE) silicide films were grown on (111)Si. Planar defects, identified to be stacking faults on {1010} planes with 1/6<1213> displacement vectors, were formed as a result of the coalescence of epitaxial silicide islands. Double-domain epitaxy was found to form in RE silicides on (001)Si samples resulting from a large lattice mismatch along one direction and symmetry conditions at the silicide/(001)Si interfaces. The orientation relationships are [0001]RESi 2-x // [110]Si, (1100)RESi 2-x //(001)Si and [0001]RESi 2-x /[110]Si, (1100)RESi 2-x //(001) Si. The density of staking faults in (111) samples and the domain size in (001) samples were found to decrease and increase with annealing temperature, respectively.

Improvement of Er-silicide formation on Si(100) by W capping

“…We note that the formed ErSi 2 − x layer in our sample shows prominent texture structure according to the strong ErSi 2 − x (100) and (200) [11]. The epitaxial growth of ErSi 2 − x film on Si(100) substrate is accompanied with great compressive stress.…”