Nucleation phenomena during titanium silicon reaction

It is known that thermal annealing of Ti and amorphous (alpha) Si first results in an amorphous silicide, after which the crystalline disilicide grows under diffusion control. The situation with respect to the reaction of Ti with crystalline (x) Si is much less clear. We have investigated the reaction of Ti with xSi with (high resolution) cross-section transmission electron microscopy and in-situ Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. It is shown that an amorphous silicide can also be formed on crystalline Si. The presence of this amorphous silicide as a precursor to the C49TiSi2 phase is suggested to be an important issue in the nucleation and growth of the disilicide

A theoretical study and experimental investigation of non-LTE phenomena in an inductively-coupled argon plasma-I. Characterization of the discharge

In the past considerable attention has been paid to the problem or explaining analyte and argon excitation in inductively-coupled plasmas. Deviations from Local Thermal Equilibrium (LTE) have been frequently reported. In this paper a theoretical framework is constructed to explain quantitatively analyte and argon excited level densities. An essentially new description of the discharge is proposed in terms of partial LTE and the saturation regime. Models and their applications to an ICP discharge are thoroughly discussed and compared with former LTE models