Study of surface segregation of Si on palladium silicide using Auger electron spectroscopy

The transformation of Pd/Si to Pd2Si/Si is studied using Auger electron spectroscopy over a wide temperature range of 370–1020 K. The Pd film gets totally converted to Pd2Si upon annealing at 520 K, and beyond 570 K, Si starts segregating on the surface of silicide. It is found that the presence of surface oxygen influences the segregation of Si. The time evolution study of Si segregation reveals that segregation kinetics is very fast and the segregated Si concentration increases as the temperature is increased. Scanning electron microscopy measurements show that Pd2Si is formed in the form of islands, which grow as the annealing temperature is increased.