Low energy electron beam stimulated surface reaction: Selective etching of SiO2/Si using scanning tunneling microscope

Nan Li; Tatsuo Yoshinobu; Hiroshi Iwasaki

doi:10.1143/jjap.37.l995

Low energy electron beam stimulated surface reaction: Selective etching of SiO₂/Si using scanning tunneling microscope

Nan Li, Tatsuo Yoshinobu, Hiroshi Iwasaki

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We report here an experimental study of the low energy electron stimulated reaction (LEESR) carried out on a SiO₂/Si surface using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). By applying 100-150 V bias voltage and about 5 nA to below 1 μA current to the SiO₂/Si surface, while the surface was kept at 700°C and 100-200 nm away from the STM tip, a surface reaction was induced by the low energy e-beam exposure. A surface of the Si substrate with clear atomic steps was observed within the exposed area, which indicates selective etching of SiO₂ by which windows as small as 70 nm in diameter were cut through the SiO₂ layer. This result demonstrates the possibility of fabricating a SiO₂/Si surface by the LEESR etching and of performing a new type of well-controlled nanofabrication using STM.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	L995-L998
Journal	Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Part 2: Letters
Volume	37
Issue number	8 SUPPL. B
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1143/jjap.37.l995
Publication status	Published - 1998 Aug 15
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Low energy electron beam
Nanofabrication
STM
Selective etching
SiO

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Engineering(all)
Physics and Astronomy(all)

Access to Document

10.1143/jjap.37.l995

Cite this

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title = "Low energy electron beam stimulated surface reaction: Selective etching of SiO2/Si using scanning tunneling microscope",

abstract = "We report here an experimental study of the low energy electron stimulated reaction (LEESR) carried out on a SiO2/Si surface using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). By applying 100-150 V bias voltage and about 5 nA to below 1 μA current to the SiO2/Si surface, while the surface was kept at 700°C and 100-200 nm away from the STM tip, a surface reaction was induced by the low energy e-beam exposure. A surface of the Si substrate with clear atomic steps was observed within the exposed area, which indicates selective etching of SiO2 by which windows as small as 70 nm in diameter were cut through the SiO2 layer. This result demonstrates the possibility of fabricating a SiO2/Si surface by the LEESR etching and of performing a new type of well-controlled nanofabrication using STM.",

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author = "Nan Li and Tatsuo Yoshinobu and Hiroshi Iwasaki",

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T1 - Low energy electron beam stimulated surface reaction

T2 - Selective etching of SiO2/Si using scanning tunneling microscope

AU - Li, Nan

AU - Yoshinobu, Tatsuo

AU - Iwasaki, Hiroshi

PY - 1998/8/15

Y1 - 1998/8/15

N2 - We report here an experimental study of the low energy electron stimulated reaction (LEESR) carried out on a SiO2/Si surface using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). By applying 100-150 V bias voltage and about 5 nA to below 1 μA current to the SiO2/Si surface, while the surface was kept at 700°C and 100-200 nm away from the STM tip, a surface reaction was induced by the low energy e-beam exposure. A surface of the Si substrate with clear atomic steps was observed within the exposed area, which indicates selective etching of SiO2 by which windows as small as 70 nm in diameter were cut through the SiO2 layer. This result demonstrates the possibility of fabricating a SiO2/Si surface by the LEESR etching and of performing a new type of well-controlled nanofabrication using STM.

AB - We report here an experimental study of the low energy electron stimulated reaction (LEESR) carried out on a SiO2/Si surface using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). By applying 100-150 V bias voltage and about 5 nA to below 1 μA current to the SiO2/Si surface, while the surface was kept at 700°C and 100-200 nm away from the STM tip, a surface reaction was induced by the low energy e-beam exposure. A surface of the Si substrate with clear atomic steps was observed within the exposed area, which indicates selective etching of SiO2 by which windows as small as 70 nm in diameter were cut through the SiO2 layer. This result demonstrates the possibility of fabricating a SiO2/Si surface by the LEESR etching and of performing a new type of well-controlled nanofabrication using STM.

KW - Low energy electron beam

KW - Nanofabrication

KW - STM

KW - Selective etching

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