Nitrogen depletion during oxidation in N2O

Abstract

The incorporation of nitrogen in oxides has been studied after furnace oxidation in N2O at 900°C. We observe that nitrogen is removed from the oxide bulk during oxidation in N2O, while simultaneously nitrogen is incorporated at the growing Si-SiO2 interface. This results suggests that nitrogen incorporation involves a dynamic equilibrium between competing processes which causes both nitrogen incorporation and depletion. A chemical model for nitrogen removal is proposed based on a reaction with NO. Reaction energies, estimated from semiempirical quantum-mechanical calculations, support the proposed model.© 1995 American Institute of Physics.