Kinetics of growth of the oxidation stacking faults: The capture of interstitials by partial dislocation

Abstract

All models of oxidation stacking fault (OSF) growth previously published depict the stacking fault as a circular sink of interstitials the concentration of which has been maintained at a value Cs very far from the OSF. This geometry is not correct. The silicon-oxide interface provides the interstitials, and the partial dislocation surrounding the OSF emerges at this interface. The model presented in this article takes into account the actual geometry, and thus it can be deduced that the OSF’s are elongated semiellipses rather than semicircles. The activation energy for the capture of interstitials by partial dislocation ΔH is small or negative (ΔH<0.1 eV). The dependence of the length of the OSF’s with respect to the distance between them d is small when this distance is more than 260 nm in our experiments. The minor axes of the OSF’s may be reduced if their distance d is less than half their length.