Abstract: A method for producing, without etching, a perforated layer of epitaxial metal silicide, especially CoSi.sub.2, on a single crystal Si substrate, with epitaxial Si overlying the silicide layer. The layer thickness, and the number and size of the openings in the layer are such as to make the structure suitable as an electronic device, in particular, as a permeable base transistor. The number and/or size of the openings is a function of processing parameters such as the substrate orientation, the annealing temperature of the film, or the Co/Si ratio of the deposited material. A device comprising a perforated silicide layer is also disclosed.

Abstract: Described is a method for producing metal silicide/silicon heterostructures. The method comprises depositing a very thin Si "template" layer on a relatively cold (<200.degree. C.) silicide substrate, raising the substrate temperature into the approximate range 500.degree.-800.degree. C. and maintaining it there while depositing further Si onto the template. The resulting Si layer can be of high crystalline perfection. The silicide advantageously is CoSi.sub.2, Co.sub.x Ni.sub.1-x Si.sub.2, CoSi.sub.y Ge.sub.2-y, or NiSi.sub.2, with 0<x<1,1<y<2.

Abstract: A method for forming heterostructures comprising multiconstituent epitaxial material, on a substrate comprises formation of a layer of "precursor" material on the substrate, and momentarily melting the precursor material by pulsed irradiation. The precursor material has the same major chemical constituents as the multiconstituent material to be formed, albeit not necessarily in the same proportions. In at least some systems (e.g., nickel or cobalt silicides on Si), solid state annealing of the re-solidified material often improves substantially the quality of the epitaxial material formed, resulting in substantially defect-free, substantially monocrystalline, material. An exemplary application of the inventive method is the formation of single crystal epitaxial NiSi.sub.2 on Si(100).

Abstract: The method for growing heteroepitaxial multiconstituent material on a substrate comprises deposition of a thin disordered layer of a "template-forming" material, i.e., material containing at least one constituent of the multiconstituent material to be grown, and differing in chemical composition from at least the substrate material, on the substrate surface at a relatively low deposition temperature, raising the substrate temperature to an intermediate transformation temperature, thereby causing the template-forming material to undergo a reaction that results in formation of "template" material, typically material having substantially the same composition as the multiconstituent material to be grown. Onto the thus formed template layer is then deposited the material for the epitaxial multiconstituent layer. This general process is exemplified by the growth of NiSi.sub.2 on a Si substrate, by first depositing at room temperature about 18.ANG.