A bottom-gate thin film transistor having a silicide gate is described. This transistor is advantageously formed as SONOS-type nonvolatile memory cell, and methods are described to efficiently and robustly form a monolithic three dimensional memory array of such cells. The fabrication methods described avoid photolithography over topography and difficult stack etches of prior art monolithic three dimensional memory arrays of charge storage devices. The use of a silicide gate rather than a polysilicon gate allows increased capacitance across the gate oxide.