Growth of Epitaxial CoSi sub 2 and NiSi sub 2 on (111), (100), and (110) Si at Room Temperature

The formation of NiSi sub 2 and CoSi sub 2 from evaporated metal films on single crystal Si requires an anneal at high temperatures (750C for NiSi sub 2 and 550C for CoSi sub 2). A high temperature is required because the nucleation and diffusion processes need large thermal activation. In this paper, we show that the "reaction" of these silicides proceeds quite adequately at room temperature.