Identification of the dominant diffusing species in silicide formation

Abstract

Implanted noble gas atoms of Xe have been used as diffusion markers in the growth study of three silicides: Ni2Si, VSi2, and TiSi2. Backscattering of MeV He has been used to determine the displacement of the markers. We found that while Si atoms predominate the diffusion in VSi2 and TiSi2, Ni atoms are the faster moving species in Ni2Si.