Kinetics of nickel silicide growth in silicon nanowires: From linear to square root growth

Journal Article · Sun May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3574650· OSTI ID:21560234

Yaish, Y E; Beregovsky, M ^[1]; Katsman, A ^[2]; Cohen, G M ^[3]

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1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion, Haifa, Israel, 32000 (Israel)
2. Department of Material Engineering, Technion, Haifa, Israel, 32000 (Israel)
3. IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598 (United States)

The common practice for nickel silicide formation in silicon nanowires (SiNWs) relies on axial growth of silicide along the wire that is initiated from nickel reservoirs at the source and drain contacts. In the present work the silicide intrusions were studied for various parameters including wire diameter (25-50 nm), annealing time (15-120 s), annealing temperature (300-440 deg. C), and the quality of the initial Ni/Si interface. The silicide formation was investigated by high-resolution scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy. The main part of the intrusion formed at 420 deg. C consists of monosilicide NiSi, as was confirmed by energy dispersive spectroscopy STEM, selected area diffraction TEM, and electrical resistance measurements of fully silicided SiNWs. The kinetics of nickel silicide axial growth in the SiNWs was analyzed in the framework of a diffusion model through constrictions. The model calculates the time dependence of the intrusion length, L, and predicts crossover from linear to square root time dependency for different wire parameters, as confirmed by the experimental data.

• OSTI ID: 21560234
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 109, Issue 9; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3574650; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
ANNEALING
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY
DIFFUSION
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRON DIFFRACTION
INTERFACES
KINETICS
NICKEL
NICKEL SILICIDES
QUANTUM WIRES
RESOLUTION
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
SILICON
SPECTROSCOPY
TIME DEPENDENCE
TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
X RADIATION
COHERENT SCATTERING
DIFFRACTION
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
ELEMENTS
HEAT TREATMENTS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
METALS
MICROSCOPY
NANOSTRUCTURES
NICKEL COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADIATIONS
SCATTERING
SEMIMETALS
SILICIDES
SILICON COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS