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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 September 2012
Many silicides, including TaSi2, CoSi2, TiSi2 and others, form eutectics with silicon. Directional solidification of melts with the eutectic composition and controlled doping of the silicon matrix results in two-phase electronic composites with oriented structures. Such composites have unusual microstructures and interesting properties resulting from the high density of Schottky junctions. In this paper, the growth, microstructure, transport properties and device applications of silicon-silicide composites are reviewed, concentrating mostly on the benchmark Si-TaSi2 system. The Si-TaSi2 interface, formed upon solidification, is characterized electrically as well as structurally by electron-beam induced current techniques, x-ray diffraction and high resolution TEM. It is shown that the interface is of remarkably good quality allowing the fabrication of very high quantum efficiency (80%) photodiodes and high voltage (up to 6kV) transistors.