Study of the evolution of platinum silicides

Platinum is not only commonly used in the fuel cell technology or the broadly defined catalytic processes, but also in technology based on silicon. Platinum-silicon alloys (the so-called platinum silicides) can be formed by deposition of a metallic thin film on a silicon substrate followed by annealing of the system. This process improves the morphological and thermodynamic stability of the system and leads to the increase of functionalisation of devices used in nanoelectronics (Schottky diodes, infrared detectors, field-effect transistor gates, etc.).

Inserting precious metals, such as platinum, causes a significant improvement of electric or catalytic properties not only of silicon, but also new semiconductors, such as silicon carbide and graphene. The multitude of potential applications of the mentioned systems containing Pt forces the need for research on platinum silicide forming on various substrates, in particular studies of local properties and morphology at nanometric scale.

The work Platinum silicide formation on selected semiconductors surfaces via thermal annealing and intercalation presents the results of adsorption and annealing of Pt thin film systems on Si(100) and Si(111) silicon crystal substrates and on the surface of silicon carbide 4H-SiC(0001) and graphene-4H-SiC(0001). The purpose of this work is expanding the knowledge of the formation and evolution of platinum silicides after annealing at various temperatures that induces diffusion processes and intercalation of Pt into the deeper layers of the substrate.

The illustration presents a graphic abstract of the publication. 

Added by: Joanna Molenda-Żakowicz

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