Aspects of the present disclosure relate to methods, systems, and apparatus for conducting a radical treatment operation on a substrate prior to conducting an annealing operation on the substrate. In one implementation, a method of processing semiconductor substrates includes pre-heating a substrate, and exposing the substrate to species radicals. The exposing of the substrate to the species radicals includes a treatment temperature that is less than 300 degrees Celsius, a treatment pressure that is less than 1.0 Torr, and a treatment time that is within a range of 8.0 minutes to 12.0 minutes. The method includes annealing the substrate after the exposing of the substrate to the species radicals. The annealing includes exposing the substrate to molecules, an anneal temperature that is 300 degrees Celsius or greater, an anneal pressure that is within a range of 500 Torr to 550 Torr, and an anneal time that is less than 4.0 minutes.