Dopant and self-diffusion were known to be governed by both self-interstitials and vacancies; as normalized to their thermal equilibrium values. Since these point defect concentrations were too low to be investigated directly, the diffusion mechanisms had to be considered to be unknown. A new equation that had been derived from the dopant diffusion equation was solved at the same time as the equation for oxidation-induced stacking faults under conditions of local equilibrium between interstitials and vacancies. In this way, the interstitial and vacancy concentrations were obtained as functions of the diffusion time, and the fractional components of the interstitialcy mechanism for self-diffusion could be determined. It was found that self-diffusion was governed mainly by a vacancy mechanism.

T.Okino, R.Takaue, M.Onishi: Materials Science Forum, 1995, 196-201, 1631-6