A scanning cw argon ion laser has been used to rapidly heat Si in a fixed oxygen atmosphere to produce thin oxide layers on the surface. Analysis of the growth rate of these films reveals an enhancement over the normal thermal equilibrium rate of oxidation for silicon dioxide layers grown by furnace in the temperature range 850–1050 °C, and is thought to be a result of the photoionizing effect of the band‐gap photon flux. A simple model incorporating this characteristic is shown to qualitatively agree with the experimental results, and clearly indicates the importance of the density of broken Si–Si bonds in the oxidation reaction.