Abstract
Transmission electron microscopy has been used to reveal the microstructural development in magnetron-sputtered MoSi2 films. Both 50 nm thick free-standing films and 1 mum thick films on (00 I)Si exhibited similar microstructures. The as-deposited films were amorphous. Annealing at 700 degreesC resulted in the crystallisation of heavily faulted, fine, untextured grains of the metastable hexagonal C40 MoSi2 phase. Annealing above 800 degreesC led to the polymorphic transformation of the C40 phase to the equilibrium tetragonal C11(b) MoSi2 and D8(m)Mo(5)Si(3) phases. The C11(b) grains contained high densities of coherent {112} <111 > twins on {110}. It was deduced that the C11(b) phase was produced from the C40 phase by a massive transformation with coherent growth twins formed by "double positioning" on {110} facets at the advancing transformation front. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 829-839 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Intermetallics |
| Volume | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Sept 2002 |
Keywords
- phase transformations
- molybdenum silicides
- thin films