The effectiveness of the back side damage introduced by a cavitating jet to getter contamination in silicon has been demonstrated. Back side damage required for gettering has been introduced successfully into a silicon wafer, utilizing impacts caused by the cavitating jet. A wafer, which had previously been back side damaged in a selected area, was intentionally contaminated and submitted to a thermal treatment. The effectiveness of gettering was confirmed by the observation of etch pits on the surface, induced by the intentional contamination, other than in regions below which there was back side damage. No etch pits were observed in regions with back side damage. (C) 2004 The Electrochemical Society.