An electron spin resonance study was carried out of point defects generated in standard thermal SiO2 on (100)Si during vacuum annealing at 950 to 1250C; including the predominant exclusive S center in addition to the familiar Eγ’, Eδ’ and EX defects. The latter appeared only after 10eV optical excitation. The S and Eγ’ density was found to increase monotonically with annealing temperature, while EX and Eδ’ detectability decreased upon annealing at above 1050 and 1200C, respectively. Over broad ranges of annealing temperature, the generation of all 3 defects (S, Eγ’, Eδ’) appeared to be thermally activated; with a common activation energy of about 1.6eV. Large defect densities could be attained. For instance, [S] could be up to about 1015/cm2 after annealing at 1250C. This was typically an order of magnitude larger than [Eγ’]. The S-center electron spin resonance characteristics were mapped in detail. Its susceptibility was found to be nearly paramagnetic. The defects appeared to be clustered. At an annealing temperature of 1200C, etch-back experiments showed that the S centers occurred predominantly near to oxide borders; with a sharp pile-up within about 4nm of the Si/SiO2 interface. A more stretched out one appeared at about 15nm towards the top surface. The S and Eγ’ centers generally occurred in anticorrelation. The S defects were susceptible to passivation in molecular H. On the basis of the electron spin resonance properties, the S center was suggested to be of the type, SinO3–n≡Si·(with n = 1, 2). The weak hyperfine structure was compatible with a single (n = 1) defect and with an overlap of the n = 1 and 2 types. The defect system exhibited a substantial randomness-induced variation in defect morphology.Structural Degradation of Thermal SiO2 on Si by High-Temperature Annealing - Defect Generation. A.Stesmans, B.Nouwen, V.V.Afanasev: Physical Review B, 2002, 66[4], 045307 (18pp)