On the formation of molybdenum silicides in MoSi multilayers: the effect of Mo thickness and annealing temperature

The present work deals with the formation of molybdenum silicides in all-sputtered a-Si/Mo/a-Si/Mo/a-Si/c-Si(100) multilayers. The structure were prepared without breaking the vacuum and the substrates were not intentionally heated during the sputtering. After deposition, the multilayers were annealed at 500 or 700°C. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and XPS techniques were used to characterize the Mo/a-Si and a-Si/Mo structures first and then the a-Si/Mo/a-Si/Mo/a-Si/c-Si(100) multilayers. The essential results can be summarized as follows: 1. (1) The nature of the interface formed in the unannealed structures depends strongly on the order of the deposits: if Si is sputtered onto sputtered Mo films, the a-Si/Mo interface is found to be abrupt while in the reverse order the deposit leads to a diffuse Mo/a-Si interface. 2. (2) The thermal treatment has a significant effect only if the temperature is of the order of 700°C. In this case, the result depends on the a-Si and Mo thickness: for thickness lower than ≈200 A only MoSi2 is formed, with predominance of the hexagonal phase, while for thicknesses greater than ≈200°C, we simultaneously observe the tetragonal phases MoSi2 and Mo5Si3.