Crystalline silicon films sputtered on molybdenum: A study of the silicon–molybdenum interface

Polycrystalline silicon films were grown on molybdenum (Mo)-coated substrates at high deposition rate using the pulsed magnetron sputtering technique. Our study investigates the silicon–molybdenum interface of these films to elucidate stimulating mechanisms for an ordered crystalline silicon thin film growth. Both Auger electron spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering reveal that at a substrate temperature as low as T_S=450 °C during the deposition process intermixing of Si and Mo at the Si–Mo interface takes place leading to a compositional ratio Mo:Si of about 1:2. By Raman spectroscopy hexagonal β-MoSi₂ could be identified as the dominant phase in this intermixed region. The dependence of the resulting thickness of the reacted interface layer on the deposition conditions is not fully understood yet.