Homogeneous Nucleation of Epitaxial CoSi2 and NiSi in Si Nanowires

Homogeneous nucleation is rare except in theory. We observed repeating events of homogeneous nucleation in epitaxial growth of CoSi2 and NiSi silicides in nanowires of silicon by using high resolution TEM. The growth of every single atomic layer requires nucleation. Heterogeneous nucleation is prevented because of non-microreversibility between the oxide/Si and oxide/silicide interfaces. We determined the incubation time of homogeneous nucleation. The calculated and the measured nucleation rates are in good agreement. We used Zeldovich factor to estimate the number of molecules in the critical nucleus; it is about 10 and reasonable. A very high supersaturation is found for the homogeneous nucleation.