CoSi2Precipitate Coarsening During Formation of Buried Epitaxial Cosi2Layers By Ion Beam Synthesis

Abstract
The coarsening of CoSi2precipitates and the microstructural evolution of (111) Si implanted with 200 keV Co+ions at 350°C and fluences of 1×1016cm−2and 6×1016cm−2were investigated as a function of depth, annealing temperature and annealing time using Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy (RBS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). After annealing cross-section TEM micrographs show a layered array of platelet-shaped precipitates with preferred facets on {111} planes. The fraction of Co-atoms, that were redistributed during the different annealing temperatures and times, has been used to determine an activation energy for the precipitate coarsening. By applying the Meechan-Brinkman and the change-of-slope methods, we obtained activation energies in the range of 3.2 – 3.6 eV.