FABRICATION OF SILICON QUANTUM WIRES BY ANISOTROPIC WET CHEMICAL ETCHING AND THERMAL-OXIDATION

Ultrafine silicon quantum wires with high-quality Si/SiO2 heterointerf aces are successfully fabricated by utilizing anisotropic wet chemical etching and subsequent thermal oxidation. It is also found that the l ateral dimensions of silicon quantum wires can be well controlled by s electing the temperature of the thermal oxidation process. The cross-s ectional image from a scanning electron microscope shows silicon quant um wires of high quality with the linewidth down to 20 nn. (C) 1995 Am erican Vacuum Society.