Towards reconfigurable electronics: silicidation of top down fabricated Silicon nanowires

We present results of our investigations on nickel (Ni) silicidation of top-down fabricated silicon nanowires (SiNWs). Control over the silicidation process is important for the applications of SiNWs in reconfigurable field effect transistors (RFETs). Silicidation is performed using a rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process on the SiNWs fabricated by electron beam lithography (EBL) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching. The effect of variations in crystallographic orientations of SiNWs and different NW designs on the silicidation process is studied. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are done to study Ni diffusion, silicide phases and silicide-silicon interface. Control over the silicide phase is achieved together with atomically sharp interfaces between the silicide and silicon. We find that {111} interfaces are predominantly formed, which are energetically most favorable according to density functional theory calculations. However, control over the silicide length remains a challenge.