In this paper, growth kinetics for ultrathin dielectrics obtained by initial rapid thermal oxidation of silicon in a nitrous oxide environment is investigated. Rapid thermal oxidation of silicon in dry oxygen and nitrous oxide ambient has been performed in a lamp-heated rapid thermal processing system. The results clearly indicate the parabolic behavior of the rapid thermal oxidation growth kinetics in the short time regime, in contrast to some recent rapid thermal oxidation data in the literature which suggested linear growth kinetics or linear-parabolic growth kinetics.
According to published papers, rapid thermal oxidation oxynitride shows nitrogen accumulation at the $Si/SiO_2$ interface. Si oxidation rates in pure $N_2O$ were also found to be lower than in $O_2$, which can be explained by the effects of reduced oxidant diffusivity in the interfacial nitrogen-rich layer. In this experiments growth kinetics study of rapid thermal oxidation shows that Si oxidation rates in pure $N_2O$ ambient were found to be higher than in $O_2$ with same oxidant partial pressure. And diffusivity of NO oxidant is very higher than that of $O_2$ oxidant.
