Epitaxial growth of nickel on Si(100) by dc magnetron sputtering

Abstract

The influence of the substrate temperature on the growth of highly textured Ni(111) and epitaxial Ni(200) with the relationships Ni [100] Si [110] and Ni (001) Si (001) on hydrogen terminated Si(100) wafer substrates by means of direct current magnetron sputtering is reported. In order to minimize crystal defect formation and to achieve a high quality epitaxial growth of Ni on Si, a two step deposition process was developed whereby different deposition conditions were used for an initial nickel seed layer and the remaining nickel film. The in-plane and out-of-plane structural properties of the films were investigated using x-ray scattering techniques, whereas magneto-optical Kerr effect and neutron reflectometry were used to confirm the magnetic nature of the epitaxially deposited nickel films. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.