Investigation of the influence of a dislocation loop layer on interstitialkinetics during surface oxidation of silicon

In this work we investigate how the presence of a dislocation loop layer af fects the surface interstitial supersaturation during thermal oxidation of silicon. To address this issue we created. using the silicon wafer bonding technique, a dislocation loop layer at different distances from the surface . The results show a linear dependence of the injection flux of interstitia ls with the inverse of the distance of the loop layer from the surface and also that the presence of the layer does not affect the surface interstitia l supersaturation. This conclusion enables the reliable use of the dislocat ion loops as point defect detectors. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.