Theory of high-temperature oxide decomposition at the SiO₂/Si interface

The ultra-high vacuum decomposition of a thin oxide layer on a resistively heated silicon substrate proceeds by the formation and lateral growth of holes in the oxide layer. It is shown that the hole radii grow linearly with time on a uniformly heated substrate, in contrast to the experimental result R 2∝t-t0. To account for the observed growth law, it is argued that defects in resistively heated wafers act as localized heat sources and so tend to nucleate holes. Under the assumption that the hole growth is reaction limited, we obtain the observed R2∝t-t0 behavior. A simple experimental test of the theory is proposed.