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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
The activation energies of interstitial oxygen diffusion in silicon containing hydrogen were derived from the results obtained from thermal donor generation experiments using numerical fitting based upon the classical nucleation rate theory and the time-dependent reduction of interstitial oxygen concentration resulting from oxygen aggregation. By using a new thermal equilibrium concentration of hydrogen at a pressure of 1 atm of 2×1021 exp(- 1.75 eV/kT), and the expression for the dependence of hydrogen thermal equilibrium concentration on the partial pressure P given as P0.65 times the hydrogen thermal equilibrium concentration at a pressure of 1 atm, the correlation between the activation energies of interstitial oxygen diffusion and hydrogen saturation is observed to be linearlogarithmic. In the hydrogen saturation range between 103 and 106, the activation energies of interstitial oxygen diffusion are estimated to be between 0.03 and 0.21 eV lower than the normal value of 2.53 eV. This implies that enhanced oxygen diffusion may occur primarily under hydrogen saturation conditions.