Plasma oxidation

The general assumption is made that the rate of oxidation is limited by the transport of ionic species through the already formed layer, with the transport mechanism being the thermally activated hopping of ionic defects in the presence of electric fields due to the surface potential established by the discharge and modified by the space charge of the mobile ionic defects. The results of the treatment are also applicable if the transport occurs by place exchange. Although attention in the present work is focused specifically on electrically isolated metal samples in the presence of an r.f.-excited oxygen plasma, the theoretical model is not limited in applicability to this special case.