NANO-SIZED SPHERICAL CLUSTERS OF TANTALUM SILICIDE FORMED BY COMPRESSION PLASMA FLOW

A pre-deposited tantalum thin film on a Si(100) substrate was treated by compression pulsed plasma flow. SEM images demonstrated the formation of spherical clusters with multi-level structures. Formation of crystalline metal rich tantalum silicides is confirmed by X-ray diffraction and EDX elemental map analysis. The results show great potential application of compression plasma flow for the development of novel nanostructured metal-silicide materials.