Oxidation Models for Crystalline Silicon Nanowires

Abstract

Mathematical techniques for calculating the thickness of a grown oxide layer on Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are described here. Problems of this nature are considered to be “Stefan,” or “moving boundary” problems. This is a diffusion problem, but it is primarily the diffusion of oxygen through a solid, silicon dioxide (SiO2), with an interior moving boundary (Si converts to SiO2 as oxygen diffuses up to the boundary and combine with Si) and a growing exterior surface (SiO2 surface expands as the interior absorbs oxygen atoms).