Ledge growth, strain accommodation, and stacking fault formation during silicon oxidation

A detailed ledge model is presented to describe the oxidation of single-crystal silicon. Volume strains are completely accommodated as a consequence of the model. Interface dislocations at the silicon-oxide interface result with attendant short-range strain fields. The model leads to an explanation of the observed anisotropic stacking fault distributions among available {111} planes when orientations slightly removed from low index surfaces are oxidized.