Abstract
For development and integration of Si nanowires into nanoelectronic devices, an understanding of Ni silicide formation in electrical contacts to Si nanowires is necessary. Here, we examine the kinetics of Ni silicide phase formation. For Si nanowires with [111] growth directions, NiSi2 is the only phase to form in the temperature range 400–550 °C, and the NiSi2 growth exhibits linear kinetics from 400 to 500 °C with an activation energy of 0.76 ± 0.10 eV. In the case of Si nanowires with [112] growth directions, growth of the θ-Ni2Si phase in contact with the Si nanowire occurs with parabolic kinetics over the temperature range 400–550 °C, and an activation energy of 1.45 ± 0.07 eV/atom is extracted. Differences in the growth rates for Ni silicide phases with different SiNW growth directions implies that for simultaneous preparation of SiNW devices with Ni silicide contacts, SiNWs with the same growth direction are necessary.
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Acknowledgment
The authors thank Prof. Long-Qing Chen for discussion and Prof. Joan Redwing for supplying SiNWs. The use of the Penn State Nanofabrication Facility [National Science Foundation (NSF), National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) ECCS-0335765] is also acknowledged. The authors are grateful for financial support from NSF ECS-0609282 (to N.S. Dellas), as well as Army Research Office W911NF-09-1-0140 and the Gates Foundation (to M. Abraham).
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Dellas, N.S., Abraham, M., Minassian, S. et al. Kinetics of reactions of Ni contact pads with Si nanowires. Journal of Materials Research 26, 2282–2285 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.188
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.188