Formation and microstructure of thin Ti silicide films for advanced technologies

We report on the solid-state reaction of thin PVD Ti films with in-situ doped Si & SiGe alloys using a combination of in-situ x-ray diffraction, sheet resistance, laser light scattering measurements and ex-situ x-ray pole figure analysis. Thin Ti films or thin bilayer films (Ni/Ti or NiPt/Ti) are found to be much more aligned with the underlying substrates. Millisecond laser anneals also lead to the introduction of strong in-plane texture.