Stabilization of silicon surfaces by thermally grown oxides

A study has been carried out of the stability of silicon surfaces when they are provided with a chemically bound solid-solid interface. Stable surfaces have been obtained with the system silicon-silicon dioxide when the oxide is thermally grown. This latter system has been studied in some detail. In this paper the following phases of our investigation are presented: (i) some aspects of the thermal oxidation process and properties of the oxide; (ii) the electronic properties of the resulting silicon-silicon dioxide interface; (iii) the application of the process to devices and resulting device characteristics.