High pressure dry oxidation kinetics of silicon—evidence of a highly stressed SiO2 structure

The kinetics of monocrystalline silicon oxidation using dry oxygen have been investigated over a wide range of pressure (14<P<1000 bars) within a low-temperature domain (600<T <780 °C). In this unexplored domain, the linear and parabolic rate constants are dependent on the pressure as B/A∼P0.7 and B∼P. The activation energy of B/A (1.70 eV) is lower than the experimental values observed in conventional thermal oxidation. Very high residual stress values have been found for these oxides together with high values of refractive index suggesting that the oxidation proceeded under compressive in-grown stresses.