The formation of a silicon alloy has been achieved by electron beam irradiation of a nickel-silicon bilayer. This process, called SiDWEL1 , has been developed by Quantiscript. The nickel-silicon bilayer is very thin and the electron beam operates at low energy and current. Silicide formation occurred around the interaction volume of the electrons within the material. This paper describes the nature of the structures produced and the origin of the difficulties encountered with the characterization. The necessity of further analysis with TEM based techniques is highlighted.

Figure 1 presents a cross-section of a typical sample. The growth of silicide grains is induced by the e-beam irradiation of the stack for few microseconds. Nucieation is initiated by the diffusion of silicon atoms in nickel grains, induced by the heating arising from the electron beam interaction with the solid. A new phase is revealed by FE-SEM observation, after wet etching of the nickel film, as shown in figures 2 and 3.