Abstract
Experiments have shown that the early stages of silicon oxidation proceed layer by layer, so that one layer is essentially complete before another develops. Other experiments show that the mechanism does not involve step growth, the most obvious mechanism. We use a new approach to modelling the growth to show that these two observations can be understood when there is a rate-determining step which depends strongly on the local oxide thickness. The rate in question might be the sticking probability, or the rate of incorporation of adsorbed oxygen species into the oxide network. Such mechanisms are possible when transport by an ionic species dominates, contrary to the situation for thicker films. Our modelling suggests the mechanisms are driven by the image interaction, as in earlier suggestions by Stoneham and Tasker, rather than an effect of the electric field central to the Mott-Cabrera mechanism.
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Torres, V.J.B., Stoneham, A.M., Sofield, C.J. et al. Early stages of silicon oxidation. Interface Sci 3, 133–141 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00207015
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00207015