Size-dependent oxidation behavior for the anomalous initial thermal oxidation process of Si

To have a clear insight into the physical origin of the anomalous initial oxidation behavior for silicon oxidation, we proposed a kinetics model by introducing the nanosize effect into the oxidation process. The rate equation of oxide growth was calculated based on our model, and these results are in excellent agreement with experiments. Notably, the present model not only bridges the breakdown of Deal–Grove model [B. E. Deal and A. S. Grove, J. Appl. Phys. 36, 3770 (1965)] in the anomalous initial region but also accurately describes the oxidation process in the whole oxidation regions over a wide temperature range.