NANOMODIFICATION OF SILICON (100) SURFACE WITH SCANNING-TUNNELING-MICROSCOPY USING POLYSILICON ON SILICON STRUCTURE

The possibility of growing nanometre scale oxides on silicon surfaces using the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) opens a new field of ap plications for this instrument. The present paper reports a polysilico n on silicon structure microfabricated using standard CMOS (complement ary metal oxide semiconductor) processes which will allow characterisa tion of the as grown oxides using various techniques. The structure is characterised by STM and atomic force microscopy to study the effect of reactive ion etching damage and HF etching over the silicon surface . Finally a new technique to carry out local oxidation of a silicon (1 00) surface using STM is presented which is based on controlling the e lectrical field between the tip of the STM and the surface of the samp le. (C) 1995 The Institute of Materials.