NANOOXIDATION USING A SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPE - AN ANALYTICAL MODEL-BASED ON FIELD-INDUCED OXIDATION

The formation of a nanometer-size oxide pattern on silicon using a sca nning probe microscope (SPM) has been widely reported in the literatur e. No analytical model has been proposed, however, to explain the vari ation of the oxide height with both polarization and speed of the SPM tip. In this letter, we explain quantitatively the variation of the ox ide height with the polarization and the speed of the tip with a model based on field induced oxidation. Data analysis also allows us to est imate the thermal activation energy of the oxidation process, (similar to 0.15 eV). This low value is compared with activation energies meas ured for thermal and plasma oxidation of silicon. (C) 1997 American In stitute of Physics.