Low energy electron stimulated etching of thin Si-oxide layer in nanometerscale using scanning tunneling microscope

With a low-energy electron stimulated reaction on Si oxide nanofabrication of thin Si-oxide layers on Si surfaces has been carried out using scanning tunneling microscope (STM). By dosing a very localized low-energy electron beam from the STM tip followed by thermal desorption, nanometer-scale windo ws of 50 nm on average can be cut through the Si oxide layers with a minimu m size of similar to 25 nm. With this method, line- and ring-window pattern s were successfully formed on the Si oxide layer. E-beam exposure dependenc e of the window size was observed on the fabricated line windows, which ind icates high controllability of the nanofabrication procedure.