In-situ investigation of V3Si phase formation at high temperature and resulting superconductivity

Abstract

Vanadium silicide (V3Si) is a promising superconductor for integration with silicon-based electronics, however the interfacial growth kinetics have a strong influence on the resulting superconducting properties and are not yet fully understood. In this study, we have used neutron reflectometry to reveal the phase transformation during thin film growth driven by different annealing strategies. We examined the silicide formation when a thin layer of vanadium undergoes reactive diffusion with a silicon dioxide film on silicon at temperatures from 650–800 °C. To further investigate the time evolution of different phases under various annealing temperatures, a chemical model was developed and sub..