Observation and analysis of epitaxial growth of CoSi2 on (100) Si

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Abstract
CoSi2 layers formed by the thermal reaction of vapor-deposited Co films on Si(100) substrates have been studied by transmission electron microscopy, and x-ray diffraction. It is shown that first a layer of CoSi is formed between Co and Si. Only thereafter is the formation of CoSi2 initiated at the Si/CoSi interface. In view of the similarity of the crystal structure and the small lattice mismatch between the Si and the CoSi2, epitaxy of aligned (100) CoSi2 is expected to occur. However, in addition to an aligned (100) orientation, CoSi2 occurs in a number of orientations, including a (110) preferential orientation. Many individual grains are composed of subgrains, slightly rotated with respect to each other and connected by small-angle boundaries. It is shown that the observations can be largely attributed to the geometrical lattice match between CoSi2 and Si. A computer program has been developed that searches systematically for a large number of possible geometrical matches. It allows us to calculate epitaxial relationships between CoSi2 and the Si(100) substrate. The probability of various fits is estimated on the basis of their strain energy and coincidence site density, showing good correspondence with the experimental observations.