The redistribution of recoil oxygen implants produced by the implantation of As ions through oxide layers on Si substrates has been investigated at annealing temperatures in the range 4000–1000 °C. Using transmission electron microscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry profiling, it has been shown that the implanted (recoil) oxygen is rapidly gettered into residual damage structure at anneal temperatures < 900 °C. At temperatures ⩾ 1000 °C residual damage gettering sites are annihilated, releasing oxygen to migrate toward the Si surface. At the higher‐annealing temperatures, oxygen has been shown to outdiffuse rapidly into the overlying (1000 A˚) oxide layer on the sample surface.