Epitaxial Growth of Rare Earth Silicides on (111)Si

Abstract

AbstractEpitaxial YSi2-x, TbSi2-x, and ErSi2-x. have been grown on (111)Si by solid phase epitaxy in ultrahigh vacuum deposited rare earth (RE) metal thin films on silicon. The evolution of vacancy ordering and defect structure in epitaxial RE silicide thin films on (111)Si have been studied by both conventional and high resolution transmission electron microscopy.Additional superlattice spots located at 1/3 <2110> in the diffraction pattern of RESi2-x, are attributed to the formation of ordered vacancy in the Si sublattice planes. The splitting of extra diffraction spots is correlated to the formation of an out-of--step structure. Streakings of the split diffraction spots in the diffraction pattern are attributed to the presence of an out-of-step structure with a range of M values. For YSi2-x and ErSi2-x, the M was found to settle down to a constant value after high temperature and/or long time annealing. For TbSi2-x, M is equal to 5 throughout the annealing.Planar defects in RESi2-x films were analyzed to be stacking faults on {1010} planes with 1/6<1213> displacement vectors. The size and density of stacking faults were found to increase and decrease, respectively, with annealing temperature and/or annealing time.