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The influence of carbon and germanium on phase transformation and sheet resistance of Ni on epitaxially grown Si1−x−yGexCy (0⩽x⩽0.24 and 0⩽y⩽0.01) layers annealed in a temperature range of 360 to 900 °C has been investigated. The role of strain relaxation or compensation in the reaction of Ni on Si1−x−yGexCy layers due to Ge or C out-diffusion to the underlying layer during the phase transformation has also been investigated. The formed NiSiGe layers were crystalline, with strong (020)/(013) growth orientation in the direction, but the thermal stability decreased rapidly with increasing Ge amount due to agglomeration. However, this thermal behavior was shifted to higher annealing temperatures when carbon was incorporated in the SiGe layers. A carbon accumulation at the interface of NiSiGeC/SiGeC has been observed even at low-temperature annealing, which is suggested to retard the phase transformation and agglomeration of Ni/SiGeC system.
Hållstedt et al. (Fri,) studied this question.