Investigation of the oxidation kinetics of NiSi2 on (111)Si by transmission electron microscopy

Abstract

A transmission electron microscopy study of oxidation kinetics of NiSi2 for both dry and wet oxidation has been carried out. Care was taken to determine the activation energies of oxidation in the temperature and time regime where the islanding of NiSi2 did not occur. For dry oxidation, activation energies for parabolic and linear growth were found to be 1.87 and 1.94 eV (with an error bar of ±0.1 eV), respectively. On the other hand, activation energies for parabolic and linear growth were found to be 1.72 and 1.59 eV (with an error bar of ±0.1 eV), respectively, for wet oxidation. The activation energy of parabolic rate constant is seen to be substantially different from those obtained previously. The difference is attributed to the occurrence and absence of islanding during oxidation in the previous and present study, correspondingly. Compared to the oxidation of TiSi2 and pure silicon, a model based on the dominant diffusing species through silicide, i.e., metal and Si for NiSi2 and TiSi2, respectively, is proposed to explain the substantial difference and closeness in linear activation energies of wet oxidation between NiSi2, TiSi2, and pure silicon, respectively.