Formations and morphological stabilities of ultrathin CoSi2 films

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the formations and morphological stabilities of Co-silicide films using 1-8-nm thick Co layers sputter-deposited on silicon (100) substrates. These ultrathin Co-silicide films are formed via solid-state reaction of the deposited Co films with Si substrate at annealing temperatures from 450 °C to 850 °C. For a Co layer with a thickness no larger than 1 nm, epitaxially aligned CoSi2 films readily grow on silicon (100) substrate and exhibit good morphological stabilities up to 600 °C. For a Co layer thicker than 1 nm, polycrystalline CoSi and CoSi2 films are observed. The critical thickness below which epitaxially aligned CoSi2 film prevails is smaller than the reported critical thickness of the Ni layer for epitaxial alignment of NiSi2 on silicon (100) substrate. The larger lattice mismatch between the CoSi2 film and the silicon substrate is the root cause for the smaller critical thickness of the Co layer.