Strain and orientation by ion implantation in epitaxial CoSi 2( 111) layers formed

Laboratorium voor Vaste Stof-Fysika en Magnetisme, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium Received 6 June 1990 Strain and orientation in epitaxial CoSi,(lll) layers formed by ion implantation have been studied by RBS/channeling and X-ray rocking curve measurements. For the thickness range (20-47 nm) of the epilayers studied, the average misalignment A9 (9 = 35.26 o ) and perpendicular strain e: are 0.30 o and - 1.87% respectively, which shows that the strain in our epilayers is larger than in the thicker layers prepared by ion implantation and in the MBE grown layers with similar thickness range, but it is still far from a completely strained layer. Our results also confirm that a pure type A or predominant type A oriented epitaxial CoSi, layer, which is rather difficult to prepare by the conventional UHV procedure, can easily be formed by ion implantation. However, for epilayer thicknesses lower than 36 nm, a correlation between the epilayer thickness and orientation is dearly present.