We have demonstrated a novel lithography method by electron-beam enhanced sputtering on a SiO2 thin film formed on a Si(001) substrate using scanning Auger microscopy (SAM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). SAM analysis suggests that the sputtering rate in the region irradiated by an energetic electron beam with a certain amount of electron dose is found to be significantly enhanced. By combining a scanned electron beam with a nearly homogeneous Ar+ ion sputtering, it has been discovered that the beam-irradiated area are selectively more etched than non-irradiated regions. The mechanism is considered that oxygen-deficient SiOx (x<2) regions formed by electron beam irradiation are relatively unstable against ion sputtering and has higher etching probability than area without beam irradiation.
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Onishi et al. (2007) studied this question.
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