We describe the patterning of silicon by exposing a hydrogen-passivated Si(
100) surface to Ar(P-3(0,2)) metastable atoms through a fine Ni grid in the
presence of a small background pressure of oxygen. Metastable atom impact
leads to the formation of a uniform oxide layer that is sufficiently resist
ant to chemical etching to allow feature depths greater than or similar to
20 nm to be realized. With optical manipulation of the incident metastable
atoms, this technique could provide the basis for massively parallel nanosc
ale fabrication on silicon without the use of organic resists. (C) 1999 Ame
rican Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)02113-0].