Chemical trend in silicide electronic structure and Schottky-barrier heights of silicide-silicon interfaces

Abstract

Changes in both the heat of formation of transition-metal silicides and the core-level shifts of various transition metals with silicidation are interpreted in terms of the chemical trend of silicide electronic structure. It is shown that the heat of formation and the core-level shifts are dominated by transition metal d-band occupancy which well characterizes silicide electronic structure. Further, it is also found that the d-band occupancy correlates well with Schottky-barrier heights of silicide-silicon interfaces. This suggests that silicide-Si Schottky-barrier heights are influenced by not only interface properties but also bulk silicide electronic properties.