Abstract
β-FeSi2 thin films on Si (100) substrate were prepared by ion beam sputter deposition (IBSD) method under ultra-high vacuum condition. We investigated the effect of surface treatments of Si on the crystal structure of β-FeSi2 film formed by IBSD method. Three kinds of conventional surface treatment methods were employed; namely, thermal etching (TE), sputter etching (SE) and wet etching (WE). After each etching, Fe was sputtered and deposited on heated Si in the temperature range between 873 K and 1073 K. In order to characterize the crystal structure of the formed films, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was performed. From the XRD results, it was concluded that TE method is not appropriate to obtain an epitaxial β-FeSi2 on Si because the surface distortion is induced in Si. Little difference of the crystal structure was observed between SE and WE methods. These results suggest that a moderate disorder of the substrate surface may well enhance the mixing of Fe and Si atoms to form highly (100) -oriented β-FeSi2.
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