Electronic properties on silicon-transition metal interface compounds

The article reviews recent experimental and theoretical work on the electronic properties of transition metal-silicides and of silicon-silicide interfaces. After a short description of the contact reaction between silicon and transition metal films, we give a detailed presentation of the results concerning the electronic structure of bulk silicides of near-noble, noble and refractory materials. We discuss both single- and two-particle spectra and illustrate the importance of electronic correlation in determining the spectral lineshapes. We then survey the results for several interfaces, stressing the relation between the geometry and composition of the interface and its electronic properties and specifying the current status of understanding of the experimental spectra. The last part of the article is devoted to a discussion of Schottky barriers in these interfaces and to a review of the mechanisms responsible for barrier formation.