Silicides : fundamentals and applications ; proceedings of the 16th Course of the International School of Solid State Physics, Erice, Italy, 5-16 June 1999 PDF
Preview Silicides : fundamentals and applications ; proceedings of the 16th Course of the International School of Solid State Physics, Erice, Italy, 5-16 June 1999
Series Editor: A. Zichichi SUICIDES Fundamentals and Applications Editors Leo Miglio & Francois d'Heurle World Scientific Cover picture: Geometric picture from a fresco in the Monreale Cathedral in Sicily, near Erice. SUICIDES Fundamentals and Applications Proceedings of the 16th Course of the International School of Solid State Physics THE SCIENCE AND CULTURE SERIES — MATERIALS SCIENCE Series Editor: A. Zichichi, European Physical Society, Geneva, Switzerland Series Editorial Board: P. G. Bergmann, J. Collinge, V. Hughes, N. Kurti, T. D. Lee, K. M. B. Siegbahn, G. 't Hooft, P. Toubert, E. Velikhov, G. Veneziano, G. Zhou 1. Silicides: Fundamentals and Applications, 2000 THE SCIENCE AND CULTURE SERIES - MATERIALS SCIENCE SUICIDES Fundamentals and Applications Proceedings of the 16th Course of the International School of Solid State Physics Erice, Italy 5-16 June 1999 Editors Leo Miglio & Francois d'Heurle Series Editor A. Zichichi fe World Scientific • Singapore • New Jersey • London • Hong Kong Published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. P O Box 128, Farrer Road, Singapore 912805 USA office: Suite IB, 1060 Main Street, River Edge, NJ 07661 UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. SILICIDES: FUNDAMENTALS AND APPLICATIONS Copyright © 2000 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher. For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher. ISBN 981-02-4452-5 Printer! in Sincanore bv tJto-Print V PREFACE Silicides were first introduced in the technology of electronic devices some thirty years ago; since then, platinum silicide has been continuously used to form both ohmic and rectifying contacts to silicon. Later, increased miniaturization and the ensuing increased resistance of interconnections mandated that the too resistive interconnections made of polycrystalline silicon be replaced or supplemented by interconnections made of transition metal silicides, at first mostly WSi, then TiSi; and lately CoSi;. Were one to 2 judge from the volume of literature published recently, electronic applications would appear to dominate the field of silicide studies. Indeed, for many of us, this seems to limit the domain where these interesting compounds are investigated. This is certainly incorrect. However, we live in a divided world, where in spite (or because?) of the always increasing number of meetings, both national and international, and the multiplication of periodicals, physicists tend to speak exclusively to physicists and read mostly papers written by other physicists, etc... Thus, when considering silicides, one may perhaps be pardoned for overestimating the role of electronics. The 16th Course of the International School of Solid State Physics, held in Erice (Italy) in the late Spring of 1999, was intended to break artificial barriers between disciplines, and to gather inside the venerable walls of the Ettore Majorana Center, and under the glorious skies of western Sicily, people concerned with the properties and applications of silicides, regardless of the formal fields to which they belong, or of the practical goals they pursue. The attempt was made to assemble investigators concerned with theory as well as applications, and involved not only with electronics, but also with the use of silicides for thermoelectric devices, and in structural applications, for example in jet engines. It is not up to us to decide how successful we were. One thing is sure, colleagues from different disciplines met at the conference. Previously, many had but faint knowledge of each other's existence; they showed evident pleasure in being able to exchange information and ideas with new acquaintances. A studious and joyous crowd of students were exposed to teachers who would not have appeared in their respective institutions. They contributed considerably to the happy and fruitful atmosphere, thanks to their youth, their eagerness and their vitality. It is hoped that the meeting helped open their eyes and minds upon broadened horizons. Some of these were invited to submit papers that are included here next to the works of more senior members of the community. It is difficult to be perfectly universal: we are aware of at least two domains that were not at all touched in these proceedings, the use of uranium silicides as fuel in nuclear reactors, and the study of ternary silicides by people concerned with heavy Fermions. vi The substance of the meeting is now being offered to the community at large in the form of the present book. It is hoped that it shall prove to be useful to graduate students pursuing degrees in physics and chemistry, metallurgy, electronics or mechanical engineering. The meeting and the resulting publication were made possible by the generous support of STMicroelectronics of Catania, the GNSM branch of the Italian National Research Council, the Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, UNESCO-ROSTE, and the IBM Research Division; may they all accept the expression of the organizers'gratitude. Many words of appreciation are due to the administrative personnel of the Ettore Majorana Center in Erice: their diligence and kindness contributed in no small measure to the success of the meeting. It is a special pleasure to thank Prof. Giorgio Benedek, Director of the International School of Solid State Physics, who seems impervious to fatigue, and was always charming, smiling and encouraging either at the top of the antic theater in Segesta in the middle of the day, or late at night at his desk in the business office. F. M. d'Heurle, Yorktown Heights L. Miglio, Milano
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