New insight into silicide formation: The creation of silicon self-interstitials

Diffusion studies of Cu+Re and Re+CU films on silicon show that the formation of Cu₃Si precursor lowers the formation temperature of ReSi₂ from over 900 to 550 ^∘{}C. The results are explained and generalized to all metal-rich silicides by the specific volume of silicon being much larger in these compounds than in elementary silicon. In forming metal-rich silicides, silicon atoms are forced out of their original planes and are free to form silicon-rich silicides with adjacent metals, or to form silicon self-interstitials at the metal-rich-silicide--silicon interface.