Growth of β-FeSi2 particles on silicon by reactive deposition epitaxy

Reactive deposition epitaxy is used for the growth of semiconducting β-FeSi2 particles on Si(0 0 1) substrate. Iron layers of thickness 6 nm were deposited on Si substrates at 600 °C, followed by in situ annealing at 600 °C for 10, 20 and 30 min. The coexistence of the equilibrium α-FeSi2, β-FeSi2 phases and the metastable γ-FeSi2 phase is revealed through transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis, whereas the evolution of the semiconducting β-FeSi2 phase with annealing time is investigated with infrared transmittance measurements.