Effects of two-step annealing on the epitaxial growth of CoSi2 on silicon

Abstract

The formation of epitaxial CoSi2 on silicon by both conventional and two-step annealing of cobalt thin films on silicon was studied by transmission electron microscopy.For two-step annealing, samples were first annealed at 350 °C for 1 h, followed by high temperature annealing at 650–950 °C for 1 h. The scheme was found to be very effective in promoting the epitaxial growth of CoSi2 on silicon as well as eliminating faceted structures on Si(111). The results are discussed in terms of the driving away of impurities from the interfaces.