Abstract
The growth mechanism of the elongated NiSi 2 clusters was investigated according to the shape distribution observed and the strain energy calculated in this experiment. Because the shape distribution of the NiSi 2 clusters observed here cannot be explained by the energetic model, we infer that the elongation process of the NiSi 2 clusters should be mainly governed by the growth kinetics. An existing kinetic model, which has been used to explain the elongation process of a single epitaxial structure, is expanded to explain the trend of the shape distribution observed in this experiment. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.