The behavior of end-of-range dislocation loops was used to study a flux of point defects which occurred upon the formation of a TiSi2 film. Extrinsic dislocation loops were formed in material which then had 30nm of Ti deposited onto it before annealing so as to form TiSi2. Control samples which contained loops but did not have a TiSi2 film were also annealed as a control. The numbers of interstitials which was bound by the loops were measured by means of plan-view transmission electron microscopy. An enhanced loss of interstitials that were bound by loops in silicided samples indicated the existence of a vacancy supersaturation that was caused by the presence of the TiSi2 film. By assuming the occurrence of a constant flux of vacancies from the TiSi2/Si interface to the layer of dislocation loops, it was possible to deduce values of CvDv; where Cv was the concentration of vacancies and Dv was the diffusivity of a vacancy. By using published data for Cv*Dv, where Cv* was the equilibrium population of vacancies, a Cv/Cv* ratio of about 1.2 was deduced for annealed material with a TiSi2 film.

S.B.Herner, V.Krishnamoorthy, K.S.Jones: Applied Surface Science, 1996, 103[4], 377-82