Thermodynamic and Experimental Study of β-FeSi 2 Lpcvd

Thin films of semiconducting iron suicide β-FeSi2 have been synthetized by Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition in a cold wall reactor, starting from iron chloride and silane. Optimum experimental conditions for both iron chlorination and iron disilicide deposition have been determined by classical thermodynamic calculations. Despite the narrow range of as predicted deposition parameters, it has been possible to obtain mirror like thin films of pure polycrystalline β-FeSi2 on SiO2 substrate. The structural characteristics of the as deposited layers observed by SEM, AES and RBS are presented together with their electronic properties.