Density relaxation of silicon dioxide on (100) silicon during thermal annealing

Abstract

Measurements of the refractive index of thermally grown oxide after annealing reveal that the density relaxation of the oxide is well described by a stretched exponential decay function. The experiments of two-step oxidation show that oxygen diffusivity in the oxide exponentially decreases with the oxide density. The relation between the oxide density and the refractive index is well expressed by a simple power relation rather than the Lorenz–Lorenz formula.