Formation of epitaxial cobalt disilicide thin film by solution processing

A precursor obtained by the reaction between cyclopentasilane and dicobaltoctacarbonyl in a toluene solution provides a method for the production of a low-resistivity thin film of cobalt disilicide CoSi2 (ca. 15 µΩ·cm) on a silicon (100) substrate by spin coating and annealing. Several types of analysis have revealed that the films formed on silicon substrates have a double-layer structure consisting of an upper layer (oxidized complex film) and an epitaxial CoSi2 layer with low resistivity along the (100) orientation of the silicon substrate. The former layer can be removed by dry etching or chemical mechanical planarization when used in actual applications.