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Activation energy of thermally grown silicon dioxide layers on silicon substrates
Author(s) -
Gerlach G.,
Maser K.,
Saad A. M.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.200945313
Subject(s) - activation energy , silicon , oxide , diffusion , logarithm , silicon dioxide , range (aeronautics) , energy (signal processing) , materials science , silicon oxide , thermodynamics , kinetics , thermal oxidation , atmospheric temperature range , thermal , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , physics , mathematics , composite material , optoelectronics , mathematical analysis , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , silicon nitride , chromatography
A detailed numerical consideration is used as basic approach for calculating profiles of activation energy versus oxide thickness for various temperatures between 780 and 930 °C. Results presented here are intentionally not based on models of diffusion and reaction kinetics to avoid introducing correction terms due to the expansion of theory still under discussion. The statistical calculation gives the mean activation energy of 2.01 eV with standard deviation of 0.10 eV, very close to the overall activation energy of 2.05 eV [M. A. Rabie, Y. M. Haddara, and J. Carette, J. Appl. Phys. 98 , 074904 (2005)]. More instructive features of the thermal oxidation of silicon have been disclosed directly from measurements of oxide thickness with time [M. A. Hopper, R. A. Clarke, and L. Young, J. Electrochem. Soc. 122 , 1216 (1975) and J. Blanc, Philos. Mag. B 55 , 685 (1987)]. Graphs of the natural logarithm of the growth rate versus oxide thickness, in the range between 2 and 65 nm, show that the oxide thickness influences the activation energy E A between 1.4 and 2.7 eV.