IR absorption property in nano-thick Ir-inserted nickel silicides

We fabricated thermally evaporated 10 nm-Ni/1 nm-Ir/(poly)Si films to investigate the energy saving property of silicides formed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at the temperature range of 300-1,200°C for 40 seconds. Moreover, we fabricated 100 nm-thick ITO/(poly)Si films with an rf-sputter as references. A transmission electron microscope (TEM) and an X-ray diffractometer were used to determine cross-sectional microstructure and phase changes. A UV-VIS-NIR and FT-IR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) were employed for near-IR and middle-IR absorbance. Through TEM analysis, we confirmed 20-65 nm-thick silicide layers formed on the single and polycrystalline silicon substrates. Ir-inserted nickel silicide on single crystalline substrate showed almost the same absorbance in near IR region as well as ITO, but Ir-inserted nickel silicide on polycrystalline substrate, which had the uniform absorbance in specific region, showed better absorbance in near IR region than ITO. The Ir-inserted nickel silicide on polycrystalline substrate particularly showed better absorbance in middle IR region than ITO. The results imply that nano-thick Ir-inserted nickel silicides may have excellent absorbing capacity in near-IR and middle-IR region.