Micro-Raman study of the factors limiting the TiSi2 C54 phase formation in submicron patterns

A detailed micro-Raman analysis of the C49-C54 structural phase transformation in a TiSi2 patterned film is reported. These results emphasise that a reduced density of triple-grain boundaries, considered to be the nucleation sites of the C54 phase, is not sufficient to explain the observed difficulty to convert the C49 in small areas. Other effects, such as the C54 effective nucleation probability on a given nucleation centre and the C54 ability to propagate through the film, play a key role in the C49-C54 conversion process, and affect the transition temperature required for sub-micron devices.