Influence of sputtering gas on resistivity of thin Ni silicide films

Ni silicide film, formed by stacked structure of nickel and silicon, have been fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering using different gas species. The resistivity of the silicide films have been measured. While the resistivity of the film with Ar gas sputtering gradually decreases with higher annealing temperature, films with Kr gas sputtering show resistivity as low as the bulk ones in a wide process-temperature window. A model to explain the mechanism difference has been proposed.