Influence of an annealing environment and film thickness on the phase formation in the
Ti(30 nm)/Si(100), [(Ti+Si) 200 nm]/Si(100) thin film systems produced by magnetron sputtering
and the Ti(200 nm)/Si(100) thin film system produced by electron-beam sputtering were
investigated by X-ray and electron diffraction, Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), secondary ion
mass-spectrometry (SIMS) and resistivity measurements. Solid-state reactions in the thin film
systems under investigation were caused by diffusion processes during annealing in the different
gas environments: under vacuum of 10-4 - 10-7 Pa, flow of nitrogen and hydrogen. It is shown that
the decrease of Ti layer thickness from 200 to 30 nm in the Ti/Si(100) film system causes the
increase of the transition temperature of the metastable C49 TiSi2 phase to the stable C54 TiSi2
phase up to 1070 K at vacuum annealing. During annealing in the nitrogen flow of the Ti(30
nm)/Si(100) thin film system the C49 TiSi2 is the first crystal phase which is formed at 870 K. For
annealings of the [(Ti+Si) 200 nm]/Si(100) thin film system by impulse heating method or for
furnace annealings in inert gas atmosphere of N2, Ar, H or higher vacuum (10-5 Pa) the
crystallization process has two stages: the first metastable C49 TiSi2 phase is formed at 870 K and
then at higher temperatures it is transformed to the stable C54 TiSi2 phase.
Misfit Strain Relaxation of Ferroelectric PbTiO3/LaAlO3 (111) Thin Film System