THE ANNEALING FEATURES OF Ta/Si MULTILAYER FILMS

The Ta/Si multilayers on (100) Si substrate have been studied over the annealing temper-ature range from 500 to 900℃ by X-ray diffraction and cross-section transmission electron microscopy. The periodicity of the multilayers becomes worse with increasing annealing tem-perature and disappears at 750℃. At 600℃, two kinds of modulation wavelength coexist because the size of several TaSi₂ grains is larger than the contracted original modulation wavelength. The films are contracted after annealing. The largest contraction, at least 40nm decreasing in thickness, occurs at 600℃. When the annealing temperature is lower than 600℃, h-TaSi₂ grains grow randomly and the growth is not affected by the substrate. At temperatures higher than 750℃, h-TaSi₂ grows preferentially in 001 direction parallel to 100 axis of Si substrate. The appearance of texture depends on whether the atomic diffusion is short range or long range at the corresponding annealing temperature.