Ion beam mixing and room temperature silicidation of Cu/Si(111) system by Ar+ ion irradiation

ion beam mixing has been extensively used in Metal/Metal and Metal/Silicon systems to produce the new phases. In the present study a Cu film of thickness 500 A was deposited by thermal evaporation at a pressure of 8 x 10(4) Pa on 5% HF etched Si(111). The films were irradiated with 80 keV Ar+ ions at room temperature with different doses. The Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) were carried out to determine the extent of mixing. The experimentally observed mixing width is compared with Anderson's cascade mixing model and the experimentally observed data are found to be very well consistent with the model, The Grazing Incidence X-Ray Diffraction (GIXRD) was carried out to determine the crystalline phase formation of the ion beam mixed Cu/Si(111) system. The presence of the new peaks apart from Cu(111) and Cu(200) confirms the crystalline phase formation. The observed diffraction lines have been indexed with the Cu0.83Si0.17 phase which is different from the thermally grown Cu3Si phase. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.