A titanium precursor is used to selectively form a titanium silicide (TiSix) layer in a semiconductor device. A plasma-based deposition operation is performed in which the titanium precursor is provided into an opening, and a reactant gas and a plasma are used to cause silicon to diffuse to a top surface of a transistor structure. The diffusion of silicon results in the formation of a silicon-rich surface of the transistor structure, which increases the selectivity of the titanium silicide formation relative to other materials of the semiconductor device. The titanium precursor reacts with the silicon-rich surface to form the titanium silicide layer. The selective titanium silicide layer formation results in the formation of a titanium silicon nitride (TiSixNy) on the sidewalls in the opening, which enables a conductive structure such as a metal source/drain contact to be formed in the opening without the addition of another barrier layer.