Study of Nickel Silicide Formed by Ion Beam Mixing

The formation of Ni silicides has been successfully synthesized by ion beam mixing. Thin nickel films were deposited by electron beam evaporation to a thickness of 50 nm on crystalline silicon (c-Si). After deposition, the films were irradiated with 100 keV Kr+ and Xe+ ions at the same fluence of 5x1016 ions/cm2 at room temperature (RT). The samples were analyzed using Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The experimental results have shown that the Kr and Xe irradiations at RT leads to the formation of Ni silicides at room temperature (RT). The surface morphology of the irradiated sample was also studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM)