Abstract
Epitaxial CrSi 2 grown on (001) and (011) Si were investigated by transmission electron microscopy. In comparison with the CrSi 2 epitaxy previously obtained in (111) Si, the quality of the epitaxial CrSi 2 layers, in terms of the size, extent of the silicon surface coverage, and the regularity of interfacial dislocations of the epitaxial regions, were found to be the best in (111) Si and the poorest in (011) Si. The role of the lattice match in the epitaxial growth of CrSi 2 on silicon is explored. Crystallographic analysis was carried out to examine possible matches between atoms in the corresponding CrSi 2 planes and (111), (001), and (011) Si planes, respectively, at CrSi 2 /Si interfaces. The quality of CrSi 2 epitaxy was found to correlate directly with the lattice match at the interfaces.