Finding interstitial oxygen in an Si substrate during low temperature plasma oxidation

An Si substrate (100) was oxidized at $400^{\circ}C$ in inductively coupled oxygen plasma. Interstitial oxygen was found in the Si substrate at the initial stage of oxidation by IR measurements. An x-ray rocking curve of Si substrates showed a lower peak intensity due to lattice distortion by the interstitial oxygen. The refractive index of thin oxides, below which interstitial oxygen existed in the Si substrate, was smaller than the refractive index of thick oxides, below which no interstitial oxygen existed. The interstitial oxygen was found by plasma oxidation using $O_{2}$ gas and $N_{2}O$ gas. The inductively coupled plasma oxidation using $N_{2}O$ gas was performed by atomic oxygen, not by molecular oxygen, indicating that atomic oxygen in plasma is responsible for the incorporation of interstitial oxygen.