Defect engineering for SiO2 precipitation is investigated using He-ion implantation as the first stage of separation by implanted oxygen (SIMOX). Cavities are created in Si by implantation with helium ions. After thermal annealing at different temperatures, the sample is implanted with 120 keV 8.0 × 1016 cm-2 O ions. The O ion energy is chosen such that the peak of the concentration distribution is centred at the cavity band. For comparison,another sample is implanted with O ions alone. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM), Fourier transform infrared absorbance spectrometry (FTIR) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements are used to investigate the samples. The results show that a narrow nano-cavity layer is found to be excellent nucleation sites that effectively assisted SiO2 formation and released crystal lattice strain associated with silicon oxidation.