Mesotaxy: Single-crystal growth of buried silicide layers.

Recent progress in the growth of thin epitaxial silicides on silicon has resulted in films of very high quality with especially smooth interfaces [1]. Using a completely different technique, high dose implantation followed by annealing, we have succeeded in creating buried single-crystal layers of CoSi sub 2, NiSi sub 2, and CrSi sub 2 in crystalline silicon. The CoSi sub 2 and NiSi sub 2 layers grow in both the (100) and (111) orientations- -those in (111) have better crystallinity, but those in (100) are of higher electrical quality. The CrSi sub 2, on the other hand, only grows in the (111) orientation where its hexagonal structure has an almost perfect lattice match to silicon. We call this new internal growth process "mesotaxy" by analogy with epitaxy which refers to single-crystal growth on surfaces.