Low-temperature oxygen diffusion in silicon

Using the formation of the proposed neutral acceptor-hydroxyl complex AOH as a marker, the diffusion coefficient of a mobile oxygen species introduced in p-type silicon from a plasma source at near ambient temperatures is determined to be D0=3.0×10−10 exp(−3.0/kT) cm2 s−1. At 35 °C the diffusion of this unbound oxygen species is 30 times faster than the effective diffusion of atomic H introduced in a similar manner. An activation energy of 1.60 eV is found for the thermal dissociation of this oxygen species bound to boron.