Epitaxial growth of nickel on Si(100) by dc magnetron sputtering

The influence of the substrate temperature on the growth of highly textured Ni(111) and epitaxial Ni(200) with the relationships Ni[100]∥Si[110] and Ni(001)∥Si(001) on hydrogen terminated Si(100) wafer substrates by means of direct current magnetron sputtering is reported. In order to minimize crystal defect formation and to achieve a high quality epitaxial growth of Ni on Si, a two step deposition process was developed whereby different deposition conditions were used for an initial nickel seed layer and the remaining nickel film. The in-plane and out-of-plane structural properties of the films were investigated using x-ray scattering techniques, whereas magneto-optical Kerr effect and neutron reflectometry were used to confirm the magnetic nature of the epitaxially deposited nickel films.