Interfacial reactions of ultrahigh vacuum deposited ytterbium thin films on silicon

✍ Scribed by K.S. Chi; L.J. Chen

• Book ID: 104369001
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 577 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0968-4328
• DOI: 10.1016/s0968-4328(02)00010-0

✦ Synopsis

Epitaxial ytterbium silicide thin ®lms were grown on (111)Si by ultrahigh vacuum deposition and subsequent thermal annealing. The epitaxial YbSi 22x thin ®lms consist of various kinds of defects such as vacancies, stacking faults, and pinholes. The vacancies were ordered so as to relax the compressive stress in Si sublattice of YbSi 22x thin ®lms. The vacancy ordering structure is of an out-of-step structure with higher vacancy concentration after higher temperature annealing so that the compressive stress was further relaxed. A high density of stacking faults was present in the epitaxial YbSi 22x thin ®lms. The stacking faults were annihilated by high temperature annealing. Pinholes also formed in the epitaxial YbSi 22x thin ®lms and could be avoided by appropriate fabrication process. The epitaxial YbSi 22x thin ®lms were thermally stable up to 1000 8C.