Electrical and structural characterization of ultrathin epitaxial CoSi sub 2 on Si(111).

We report the fabrication of epitaxial CoSi sub 2 layers on Si(111) as thin as 1 nm. The crystalline lattice of these layers is coherent with the Si lattice, and the silicide is electrically continuous. There are pronounced structural differences between films which are less than 3 nm thick and those which are thicker. This is the first report of the growth of coherent, continuous CoSi sub 2 layers on Si. Such films offer an excellent opportunity to correlate structural and transport properties and also offer the possibility of achieving 2-dimensional single- crystal metal layers.