First silicide formed by reaction of Ni(13%Pt) films with Si(100): Nature and kinetics by in-situ X-ray reflectivity and diffraction

Ni(13%Pt)/Si( 1 0 0) samples were studied during post-deposition annealing using in-situ X-ray reflectivity and diffraction. The fast Fourier transform of the reflectivity data shows the formation of a single phase during the first stages of reaction, and allows a unique determination of the Pilling and Bedworth ratio of this phase. Both X-ray reflectivity and diffraction data were fitted using a diffusion growth law to extract the kinetic parameters. The results suggest that this first growing phase is the metastable hexagonal theta-Ni(2)Si. (C) 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.