Mössbauer spectroscopy study of surfactant sputtering induced Fesilicide formation on a Si surface

Abstract

The formation of Fe silicides in surface ripple patterns, generated by erosion of a Si surface with keV Ar and Xe ions and simultaneous co-deposition of Fe, was investigated with conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. For the dot and rip-ple patterns studied, we find an average Fe concentration in the irradiated layer between 6 and 25 at.%. The Mössbauer spectra clearly show evidence of the formation of Fe disilicides with Fe content close to 33 at.%, but very little evidence of the formation of metallic Fe particles. The results support the process of ion-induced phase separation toward an amorphous Fe disilicide phase as pattern generation mecha-nism. The observed amorphous phase is in agreement with thermodynamic calculations of amorphous Fe silicides.