A Comparison of Transient Annealing Methods for Silicide Formation
Nickel and cobalt silicides have been formed by raster-scanned electron beam and flash-lamp irradiation of thin metal films on single crystal (100) and (111) silicon wafers. RBS and channelling measurements indicate that the NiSi 2 is epitaxial and of good crystalline quality (X min 4% on (111)); epitaxial CoSi 2 was more difficult to form and of somewhat poorer quality. The elastic recoil technique has been used to determine bulk and interfacial light element contamination. These measurements have been correlated with resistivity and SEM studies of the surface textures.