Β-FeSi2 films prepared on 6H-SiC substrates by magnetron sputtering*Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51177134) and the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (No. 2015JM6286). (June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Hong; Pu, Hongbin; Zheng, Chunlei; Chen, Zhiming
• Is Part Of: Journal of semiconductors. Volume 36:Number 6(2015:Jun.)
• Page Start: 87
• Publication Date: 2015-06
• Subjects: Semiconductors -- Periodicals; 621.38152
• DOI: 10.1088/1674-4926/36/6/063005
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1674-4926

Abstract

<abstract> <title>Abstract</title> <p>β-FeSi₂ thin films have been successfully prepared by magnetron sputtering and post rapid thermal annealing method on 6H-SiC (0001) substrates using a FeSi₂ target and a Si target. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy are applied to analyze the formation of β-FeSi₂ films. XRD spectra reveal that the amorphous FeSi₂ films are transformed to β-FeSi₂ phase as the annealing temperature is increased from 500 to 900 °C for 5 min and the optimal annealing temperature is 900 °C. The formation of β-FeSi₂ is also confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations indicate that the film is flat, relatively compact and the interface between β-FeSi₂ and 6H-SiC is clear. Atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements demonstrate that the surface roughness confirmed by the root mean square (RMS) of the β-FeSi₂ film is 0.87 nm. Near-infrared spectrophotometer observation shows that the absorption coefficient is of the order of 10⁵ cm⁻¹ and the optical band-gap of the β-FeSi₂ film is 0.88 eV. The β-FeSi₂ film with high crystal quality is fabricated by co-sputtering a FeSi₂ target and a Si target for 60 min and annealing at 900 °C for 5 min.</p> </abstract>