Stacking faults in WSi₂: Resistivity effects

Films of WSi2 initially deposited in an amorphous form have been known to display an unexpected resistivity maximum when annealed at a temperature corresponding to the transition from the low-temperature hexagonal structure to the high-temperature tetragonal structure. It is shown that the resistivity maximum is due to an extremely high (5×106/cm) density of stacking faults. Thus, at least one of the scattering defects which contribute to the relatively high resistivity of WSi2 films has been identified.