Hauffe—Ilschner Transition during Thermal Oxidation

Numerical computations together with physical considerations are used to argue that a transition proposed by Hauffe and Ilschner from electron tunneling to nonlinear ionic diffusion as rate-limiting mechanisms during thermal oxidation is not to be expected. The results indicate instead that the reverse transition is likely to occur. This in turn has serious implications regarding the oxidation kinetics and limiting thicknesses as a function of temperature deduced from the Mott—Cabrera theory.