Abstract
Under a mixed hydrogen/argon atmosphere epitaxial osmium silicide has been successfully grown on (111)Si for the first time. A new process of electroless deposited osmium film on Si subsequent with a suitable two-step hydrogen annealing scheme was developed for the formation of epitaxial osmium silicide. Polycrystalline silicides of Os2Si3 and OsSi2 were found in all cases of single annealing, and the grain size increased with annealing temperature. While in the developed two-step annealing scheme single-crystalline silicide can form; the first step annealing was found to be critical to determine epitaxy. The epitaxial silicide was identified to be OsSi2 of orthorhombic structure. The orientation relationships between epitaxial OsSi2 and Si were found to be (040)OsSi2∥(22̄0)Si, and [102̄] OsSi2∥ [111] Si.