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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
The influence of stress on the enhanced formation of C54-TiSi2 phase has been investigated. Tensile stress induced by backside CoSi2 film on the silicon substrate has been found to enhance the growth of C54-TiSi2 on (001)Si. The thickness of amorphous interlayers (a-interlayers) between Ti films and silicon substrates was found to be thicker and thinner in the tensilly and compressively stressed samples, respectively. From auto-correlation function analysis, the thicker a-interlayer was found to consist of a higher density of crystallites. The crystallites provide nucleation sites for C49-TiSi2 and facilitate the formation of C49-TiSi2 of small size. The larger total area of C49-TiSi2 grain boundaries supplies more nucleation sites for the phase transformation of C49- to C54-TiSi2. Therefore, the tensile stress present in the silicon substrate promotes the formation of a-interlayer and decreases the grain size of C49- TiSi2, which increases the nucleation density of the C54-TiSi2 phase. As a result, the transformation of C49- to C54-TiSi2 phase is enhanced.