Nucleation and Growth of Cosi2 on (001) and (111) Si

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Abstract
Nucleation and growth of epitaxial CoSi2 on Si by the thermal reaction of vapour deposited Co on (001) and (111) Si have been studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). On (001)-Si the layer consists of CoSi2 grains. Apart from an aligned (a)-orientation, CoSi2 occurs in a number of orientations, including a (110) preferential (b)-orientation. On (111) Si, single-crystalline layers are obtained, predominantly in the B-type orientation, which is rotated through 180° relative to the aligned (111)-orientation (A-type). The interfacial defect structure consists of misfit dislocations of edge-type with Burgers vector b=a/6, running in directions. The observations for both (001) and (111) Si are related to geometrical lattice match between CoSi2 and Si. In addition to the experimental results, a computer program has been made which calculates the matching between various orientations of CoSi2 and Si. The nucleation of B-type CoSi2 for (111) Si and the different oriented grains for (001) Si are discussed in terms of a nucleation mechanism at steps at the interface in combination with a relatively large mismatch.