On the kinetics of platinum silicide formation Available to Purchase

In this work, the kinetics of platinum silicide formation for thin Pt films (50 nm) on monocrystalline $⟨100⟩$ silicon is investigated via in situ resistance measurements under isothermal $(197–275°C)$ conditions. For $Pt2Si$ diffusion limited growth was observed. For PtSi formation, however, no linear relation between silicide thickness and $√t$ was found. PtSi growth over time could be described using the Avrami relation rendering Avrami exponent $n=1.4±0.1$⁠. Additionally, an effective activation energy $EA=1.7±0.1eV$ was derived using the Avrami $k$ values. The findings are important for obtaining well defined silicide films and silicide-to-silicon contacts.