Ion mixing of nearhyphen;noble monosilicides with Si substrates

摘要

Xe ion irradiation of NiSi, PdSi, and PtSi on Si was performed at various substrate temperatures. The phase formation and mixing behavior of the three monosilicides with their Si substrates are quite different. For NiSi, NiSi2was formed on amorphous Si substrates at 350thinsp;deg;C, while NiSi remained stable on crystalline Si substrates even at 400thinsp;deg;C. PtSi reacted with Si to form a metastable Pt4Si9phase, which decomposed back to PtSi and Si by successive irradiation at higher temperatures. The decomposition of the metastable Pt4Si9was easier on crystalline Si substrates than on amorphous substrates. No mixing was observed for PdSi on Si in the temperature range of 35ndash;400thinsp;deg;C. The ion mixing results were compared with those from thermal annealing. The importance of demixing of a thermally stable system was explored.