The kinetics of vacancy and self-interstitial processes in Si wafers were studied. Detailed insight into the nucleation processes, out-diffusion and vacancy–interstitial recombination during rapid thermal annealing led to a new model for the interaction between vacancies and oxygen. Calculation of the distribution function of these defects involved modified Becker–Döring equations, transformed for vacancies and interstitials and extended by diffusion and recombination terms. A new model, which included the vacancy-influence upon oxygen nucleation and which followed from this theoretical analysis, corresponded very well to the experimental properties of the formation of bulk micro-defects during rapid thermal annealing processes.

Analysis of Vacancy and Interstitial Nucleation Kinetics in Si Wafers during Rapid Thermal Annealing. J.Kuběna, A.Kuběna, O.Caha, M.Meduňa: Journal of Physics - Condensed Matter, 2009, 21[10], 105402