The transient supersaturation in a system undergoing Ostwald ripening is re
lated to the cluster formation energy E-fc as a function of cluster size n.
We use this relation to study the energetics of self-interstitial clusters
in Si. Measurements of transient enhanced diffusion of B in Si-implanted S
i are used to determine S(t), and inverse modeling is used to derive E-fc(n
). For clusters with n > 15, E-fc approximate to 0.8 eV, close to the fault
energy of {113} defects. For clusters with n < 10, E-fc is typically 0.5 e
V higher, but stabler clusters exist at n approximate to 4 (E-fc approximat
e to 1.0 eV) and n approximate to 8 (E-fc approximate to 0.6 eV). [S0031-90
07(99)09311-4].