ANOMALOUS OXYGEN DIFFUSIVITY AND THE EARLY STAGES OF SILICON OXIDATION

The anomalously high rates observed in the early stages of silicon oxi dation in dry O-2 at relatively low temperature (T = 600-800 degrees C ) are explained by assuming that these kinetics are controlled by the formation of a diffuse interface from the abrupt native interface. If this process is limited by O-2 diffusion in silicon, the available dat a allow the diffusivity to be determined. In particular, the activatio n energy for O-2 diffusion is estimated to be 1.7-1.8 eV.