Thermionic emission model for the initial regime of silicon oxidation

The very early stage of the thermal oxidation of single-crystal Si has been the subject of continual study for the last two decades. In the light of very recent experimental oxidation data on the initial regime, we report that a simple thermionic electron flux from Si into SiO2 closely agrees with the SiO2 film growth rate. The importance of electrons for the oxidation kinetics has also been attested to in several recent experimental studies. Thus a consistent model is presented for the initial oxidation regime based on the electron flux as the rate limiting step.