Hrem and Nano-Scale Microanalysis of the Titanium-Silicon Interfacial Reaction

Abstract

AbstractThe interfacial reaction of titanium with single crystal silicon has been characterized using high-resolution electron microscopy(HREM) combined with nano-scale microanalysis. HREM shows that there is an amorphous interdiffused alloy formation at titanium-silicon interfaces. The reacted layer is about 1.7nm thick for single crystal silicon, but is 2.5nm thick for sputter-amorphized silicon. Annealing increases the thickness of the amorphous alloy. We have used high-spatial-resolution microanalysis to obtain energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) using a 2nm probe size. The results clearly show that reliable composition analysis can be obtained at this level since some of the layers are only about 2nm thick. It was found that the amorphous alloy composition was Ti55Si45for the sputter-amorphized silicon. Futhermore we ascertained no induced reaction by 2nm probe electron beam irradiation.