Lateral growth of titanium silicide over a silicon dioxide layer

Abstract
If a silicon dioxide step on a single crystal of silicon covered with titanium is annealed, then, following vertical growth on the silicon part, lateral growth of titanium silicide takes place over the oxide layer. In the temperature range 750–950 °C this lateral growth of Ti–silicide was found to be a linear function of the square root of the annealing time. The activation energy of the lateral growth was found to be 1.89 eV. During lateral growth the Ti–silicide forms a deep spike in the silicon crystal at the SiO2 step.