In-situ characterization of ultrathin nickel silicides using 3D medium-energy ion scattering

TL;DR

This paper introduces a non-destructive in-situ method using 3D medium-energy ion scattering to analyze phase transitions and crystallography of ultrathin nickel silicide films during annealing.

Contribution

It presents a novel technique for real-time, in-situ characterization of ultrathin nickel silicide films, capturing composition and crystallography during phase transitions.

Findings

Ni film transitions follow Ni-Ni2Si-NiSi sequence.

Depth-resolved crystallography shows transformation at ~290°C.

Technique enables real-time analysis of ultrathin film phase changes.

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel approach for non-destructive in-situ characterization of phase transitions of ultrathin nickel silicide films using 3D medium-energy ion scattering. The technique provides simultaneously composition and real-space crystallography of silicide films during the annealing process using a single sample. We show, for 10 nm Ni films on Si, that their composition follows the normal transition sequence, such as Ni-Ni2Si-NiSi. For samples with initial Ni thickness of 3 nm, depth-resolved crystallography using a position-sensitive detector, shows that the Ni film transform from an as-deposited disordered layer to epitaxial silicide layers at a relatively low temperature of ~290 {\deg}C.