Low-temperature migration of silicon in thin layers of gold platinum

The backscattering method is employed to obtain microscopic information about solid-solid reactions of Si with thin layers (500–2000 Å) of both vacuum-evaporated Au and sputtered Pt. A remarkable observation is the migration of Si atoms into Au and Pt at relatively low temperatures (150 and 350 °C, respectively). Migration of Si in Pt induces first the formation of Pt2Si-like compounds and then PtSi. In the AuSi system, on the other hand, Si moves through and accumulates on the Au surface in the form of SiO2 under an oxidizing heat-treatment atmosphere.