Nucleation, growth and Ostwald ripening of CoSi{sub 2} precipitates during Co ion implantation in Si

The experimental conditions during the implantation step of Ion Beam Synthesis influence crucially the formation of a buried structure in subsequent annealing steps. Due to the complexity of the in-beam nucleation and evolution of precipitates of new phases there is still a low level of understanding. In this paper the authors present results of direct experimental investigations as well as results of computer simulations of in-beam nucleation and growth. The evolution of an ensemble of CoSi{sub 2} precipitates is mainly controlled by nucleation and diffusion. The observed decrease of the nucleation rate at high fluences can be explained by the decrease of the supersaturation of implanted atoms due to diffusion towards earlier nucleated precipitates.