A comprehensive investigation of dopant diffusion in the presence of equilibrium and non-equilibrium concentrations of intrinsic point defects was presented. It was found that, under equilibrium conditions, vacancies and interstitials mediated the diffusion of the dopant. Relevant expressions were derived for the activation energies, of various diffusion and injection mechanisms, under non-equilibrium conditions (such as those produced by the injection of excess point defects). For oxidation conditions, the calculated values were in excellent agreement with available experimental data. Both theory and experiment suggested that the concerted exchange mechanism, which involved no point defects, played only a minor role in dopant diffusion.

C.S.Nichols, C.G.Van de Walle, S.T.Pantelides: Physical Review B, 1989, 40[8], 5484-96