Growth of Epitaxial CoSi2 Through a Thin Interlayer

The phenomenon of Ti-interlayer mediated epitaxy (TIME) of CoSi2 on Si(100) has attracted much academic and technological interest. As yet, the role of the interlayer, Ti, is not fully understood. The various drawbacks of the TIME process have driven the search for a better interlayer. New results are presented which demonstrate the efficacy of a thin SiOx layer, grown in a peroxide-containing aqueous solution, in inducing nearly perfect epitaxial growth of CoSi2 on practically all surfaces of Si. This technique, dubbed oxide mediated epitaxy (OME), allows a thin layer of epitaxial CoSi2 to grow sub-surface, leaving the SiOx layer largely on the surface of the silicide. An interesting result of the surface oxide cap is a significant re-evaporation of cobalt observed during deposition at elevated temperatures. Thicker (10-30nm), excellent quality, CoSi2 single crystal thin films have been grown by repeated growth sequences on Si(100), (110), (211) and (511). Nearly perfect type A oriented CoSi2 layers were grown on Si(111) using mixed A/B oriented template layers.