Steady-state nucleation of oxide precipitates was described by a distribution function, C(m,n), where n was the number of agglomerated O atoms and m was the number of Si atoms removed from the cluster location by vacancy consumption and self-interstitial emission. The model was used to treat the experimental data of precipitation in wafers with controlled vacancy concentration induced by rapid thermal annealing. The observed dependence of the nucleation rate at 800C on vacancy and O concentration was well reproduced by the model, using the specific surface energy as a fitting parameter. The best-fit value was found to be approximately 900erg/cm2.

Nucleation of Oxide Precipitates in Vacancy-Containing Silicon. V.V.Voronkov, R.Falster: Journal of Applied Physics, 2002, 91[9], 5802-10