Investigation of the Magnesium Silicide -- Mg2Si Films

The silicides are ecologically friendly materials and they have a mechanical stability to corrosion, oxidation, decay and aggressive environments. It is known that a bulk magnesium silicide - Mg₂Si demonstrates semiconductor conductivity n-type character with energy band gap E_g=0.78 eV and solid solution based on the Mg₂Si-Mg₂Sn have figure of merit of ZT>1 [Samsonov, et. al. 1979]. Only small part of articles has devoted to thin Mg₂Si films on silicon. In this work the magnesium silicide films have been grown on silicon substrate by reactive diffusion method and their thermoelectric properties were investigated