A study of silicide formation by laser irradiation

Abstract

We have studied the formation of palladium-silicide and platinum-silicide by laser irradiation of a thin metal film evaporated on single-crystal silicon. The laser-induced silicide layers are very smooth and uniform as found by SEM analysis. The thickness of the reacted metal film has been measured as a function of applied laser fluence. X-ray diffractometry showed that the reacted layers are a mixture of different metal-silicon compounds. This fact is explained by describing the process through which silicides are formed by laser irradiation.