The formation of CoSi 2 nanowires (NWs) via the annealing of Si NWs conformally coated with atomic layer deposited (ALD) Co layers was investigated. Co ALD was carried out using Co(iPr-AMD) 2 and NH 3 as a precursor and a reactant, respectively. Rapid thermal annealing (RTA) of Co/Si core-shell NWs produced Co oxide instead of CoSi 2 due to oxygen contamination during annealing. To prevent oxygen contamination, a highly conformal ALD Ru layer was used as a capping layer. X-ray diffraction showed the formation of CoSi 2 when the Co/Si core-shell NWs were annealed at over 800 • C. To investigate the deposition and silicidation process on a nanometer scale, high resolution C s -corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy was utilized with electron energy loss spectroscopy and energy dispersion spectroscopy. In contrast to previous reports on silicidation of NWs, the dominant diffusion species was found to be Si instead of Co based on a nucleation-controlled reaction.Silicides are important materials for contacts in modern Si devices due to their low contact resistance and good compatibility. Silicide is usually formed by metal deposition on a Si layer followed by annealing at the appropriate temperature through a solid-state reaction. 1 Recently, silicide nanowires (NWs) have attracted great attention since they have the high conductivity and compatibility with metal required for contacts in nanowire devices. Silicide NWs are usually synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). For instance, three kinds of cobalt silicide NWs, Co 2 Si, Co 3 Si, and CoSi, were synthesized by the reaction of CoCl 4 vapor and Si substrate. 2 Also, SiH 4 gas was reacted with Ni thin film to form NiSi NW. 3, 4 Similarly, several silicide NWs have been reported, such as TiSi