Abstract:
The mass spectrometry study has indicated that the magnetic field accelerates the oxidation of the surface of silicon crystals. The oxidation rate also depends on the nuclear spin of silicon: the oxidation rate of atoms with magnetic nuclei ($^{29}$Si) is almost twice as high as that of atoms with spinless, unmagnetized nuclei ($^{28}$Si and $^{30}$Si). Both effects—magnetic field and magnetic isotope—reliably prove that the oxidation of silicon is a spin-selective reaction involving radicals and radical pairs as intermediate paramagnetic particles. A spin-selective magnetic sensitive oxidation mechanism is discussed.
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