Phases of oxide growth and dissolution

Starting from Eq. (6) we can calculate the mean current density for

(10)

Including this line in the current-time curve we separate the phases of effective oxide growth (current higher than mean current) and effective oxide dissolution (current lower then mean current). Since the capacitance of the oxide is related to the oxide thickness s by

, (11)

we do not expect any changes in the capacitance when J(t) equals the average current density. At that points dissolution and generation of oxide compensate each other and we expect minima or maxima of the capacitance. This is exactly what we find experimentally in Fig. 18

Fig. 18