Scanning tunneling microscopy characterization of low-profile crystalline TiSi2 microelectrodes on a Si(111) surface

Microscopic four-probe TiSi2 electrodes were fabricated on clean Si(111) surfaces and characterized using scanning tunneling microscopy with atomic resolution. The TiSi2 electrodes remained intact, and the clean Si(111)-7?7 structure was observed near the electrodes after annealing the Si substrate up to 1200 ?C. The TiSi2 electrodes were formed with a high density of large silicide plateaus. Each plateau was formed from stacked atomically flat layers comprised of atomic rows, which have been assigned as C54 phase with an epitaxial relation of TiSi2(311)||Si(111). The TiSi2 probes have the desired properties of very low profiles, low resistance, and thermal as well as chemical stability, thereby enabling the direct measurement of electrical transport properties of low-dimensional structures fabricated on clean Si surfaces.NRC publication: Ye