Study on silicidation reaction of Fe nanodots with SiH4

Abstract

Abstract We have demonstrated the formation of Fe-silicide nanodots (NDs) on SiO2 by exposing Fe NDs to SiH4. The Fe NDs were formed by exposing ultrathin Fe film deposited on SiO2 to remote H2-plasma. After SiH4 exposure at 400 °C, formation of Fe-silicide NDs with an areal dot density over 1011 cm−2 was confirmed. Photoluminescence from the Fe-silicide NDs was observable at room temperature in the near-infrared, being attributed to radiative recombination between quantized states in the NDs. The results will lead to the development of Si-based light-emitting devices that are highly compatible with Si ultralarge-scale-integration processing.