Semiconducting Silicides

1 General Material Aspects.- 1.1 Crystalline Structure and Mechanical Properties.- 1.2 Thermodynamics of Silicidation.- 1.3 Kinetics of Silicidation.- 1.4 Thermal Oxidation of Silicides.- 2 Thin Film Silicide Formation.- 2.1 Silicides and Silicon Epitaxial Relationships.- 2.2 Diffusion Synthesis.- 2.3 Ion Beam Synthesis.- 2.4 Atomic and Molecular Deposition.- 2.5 General Comments on Silicide Formation Techniques.- 3 Crystal Growth.- 3.1 Methods of Crystal Growth and Material Problems.- 3.2 Crystal Growth by Chemical Vapor Transport Reactions.- 3.3 Crystal Growth from the Flux.- 3.4 Crystal Growth from the Melt.- 3.5 Summary.- 4 Fundamental Electronic and Optical Properties.- 4.1 Basic Relationships.- 4.2 Electronic Band Structure.- 4.3 Interband Optical Spectra.- 4.4 Light Emission.- 4.5 Infrared Optical Response and Raman Scattering.- 4.6 Concluding Remarks.- 5 Transport Properties.- 5.1 Free Charge Carriers and Their Mobility in Semiconductors.- 5.2 Experimental Resistivities.- 5.3 Mobility of Charge Carriers.- 5.4 Thermoelectric Properties.- 5.5 Concluding Remarks.- References.