Transmission electron microscopic measurements were made of the size distribution of end-of-range dislocation loops during wet oxidation. A simple model was developed which described the Ostwald ripening of defects near to a sink or source of self-interstitials. It was demonstrated that the shape of the size distribution function depended upon the surface concentration, leading to a decrease in the width of the distribution with increasing surface concentration.

M.Seibt, E.Spiecker: Solid State Phenomena, 1996, 47-48, 205-10