Fabrication of FeSi and Fe_3Si compounds by electron beam induced mixing of [Fe/Si]_2 and [Fe_3/Si]_2 multilayers grown by focused electron beam induced deposition

摘要

Fe-Si binary compounds have been fabricated by focused electron beam induced deposition by the alternating use of iron pentacarbonyl, Fe(CO)_5, and neopentasilane, Si_5H_(12) as precursor gases. The fabrication procedure consisted in preparing multilayer structures which were treated by low-energy electron irradiation and annealing to induce atomic species intermixing. In this way, we are able to fabricate FeSi and Fe_3Si binary compounds from [Fe/Si]_2 and [Fe_3/Si]_2 multilayers, as shown by transmission electron microscopy investigations. This fabrication procedure is useful to obtain nanostructured binary alloys from precursors which compete for adsorption sites during growth and, therefore, cannot be used simultaneously.