Continuous β-FeSi 2 films thicker than 1 µm were grown on Si(001) substrates heavily doped with boron, using RF-magnetron sputtering followed by vacuum annealing at 850°C in a sealed quartz ampule. Film adhesion was enhanced when the substrate was abraded before sputtering and hence there were many ditches on its surface. When the substrate surface was abraded by coarse sandpaper and the sputter-deposited Fe–Si alloy layer was covered with a thin indium tin oxide layer, strongly oriented overgrowth of a single-phase β-FeSi 2 film could be observed with its (110) face parallel to the Si(001) surface after annealing. The rocking curve of the β-FeSi 2 (220) diffraction peak of the sample exhibited a full-width at half maximum of 0.16°.
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Momose et al. (2003) studied this question.