Formation of epitaxial yttrium silicide on (111) silicon

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Abstract
The growth of epitaxial yttrium silicide on Si(111) in ultrahigh vacuum is studied. Resistivity, epitaxial quality, and pinhole coverages are studied as a function of annealing temperature for each growth method used. The best films result from the growth of a thin, 30–40-Å template layer which is annealed to 700 °C, followed by a thicker film growth by depositing additional Y onto the substrate heated high enough to induce silicide formation (∼300 °C). Annealing to 900 °C results in a Rutherford backscattering minimum channeling yield χmin ∼3%, which is the same order of epitaxial quality previously achieved by only Ni- and Co-silicide films on silicon. Films grown without templates have larger pinhole sizes with pronounced features indicative of the hexagonal nature of these structures. The deposition of Y metal onto a substrate held at room temperature, followed by annealing to 900 °C results in the lowest resistivities (48 μΩ cm for 425-Å films), but with a highly dislocated film structure featuring 1-μm triangular pits which severely limit epitaxial quality.

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