On the initial regime of silicon oxidation

Abstract

Recently published results on the initial growth regime of silicon oxidation show that there is here a purely parabolic growth. This means that the interface reaction, a crucial assumption in the Deal and Grove theory, cannot be rate-limiting in this regime. This paper shows that the growth curves can be described assuming a water-enhanced oxygen transport. This causes the linear-parabolic growth. The initial regime is the growth by direct transport of oxygen.