Ultraviolet light stimulated thermal oxidation of silicon

Abstract
The photon-stimulated oxidation enhancement efficiency is shown to increase by an order of magnitude when the photon energy is raised from the visible range to the UV range just above the SiO2 to Si conduction-band energy difference. An additional order of magnitude in oxidation enhancement efficiency occurs when the UV photon energy is raised to just above the O2 dissociation energy. A critical UV pulse energy density threshold was found above which major morphological oxidation features developed at the laser beam spot location on the sample surface.