Formation Of A Metastable Nisi Phase On <111> Si Induced By Pulsed Laser Irradiation

Abstract

ABSTRACTThermally grown NiSi layers on <111> Si substrates were irradiated by 35 nsec Nd glass laser pulses in the energy density range 0.3−2.0 J/cm2. Time resolved reflectivity measurements were performed during the irradiation to detect surface melting. The samples were analyzed by 2.0 MeV He+ Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry in combination with channeling effect. The measured threshold for surface melting was 0.5 J/cm2. Irradiation at energy densities higher than 1.3 J/cm2 changed the silicides layer composition because of the mixing with the underlying silicon. In the intermediate energy density range (0.7−1.1 J/cm ) slight changes in composition were observed, a strong alignement of NiSi molecules along the <111> substrate direction was however observed. The measured Xmin was about 30%. It seems then that an epitaxial NiSi phase can be grown by pulsed laser irradiation with a suitable choice of the incident energy density. Work is in progress to identify this new NiSi phase by TEM. However this ordered phase is a metastable one since after anunealing at 250°C, 30min the channeling yield reduction disappeared without any appreciable change in composition.