Selective Growth of Semiconducting Silicide Phase Based on the Growth Parameters

Os silicide thin films were grown on (001) Si substrate using MBE method. The structural characterizations of the grown films were investigated using x-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements, Raman spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In addition, the surface morphology was depicted by AFM micrographs, and the nature of the grown epilayers was recognized using Transmission electronic microscope (TEM). All the samples had rough surface with various size of hillocks and intermediate valley like regions with a remarkable decrease in surface roughness after annealing. The measurements revealed a significant difference in the formed phases and crystalline quality with the growth parameters. The influence of Si buffer layer with thickness of 20 nm which deposited at relatively low temperature of 650 °C, and high temperature annealing (at 1050 °C) of the grown Os silicide epilayer was investigated. It was confirmed that isolating a metastable phase OsSi2 was established by selecting the required growth parameters.