Fabrication of Nanopit Arrays on Si(111)

The fabrication of nanopit arrays on n-type Si(111) substrates by anodic oxidation with atomic force microscope (AFM) followed by chemical etching is presented. Possible applications for nanopit arrays include controlled nucleation sites in crystal growth and metal embedding for quantum devices. In this study, we investigate the anodic oxidation and chemical etching processes in order to optimize the conditions for the fabrication of dots and pits of the desired shape and size. The dependence of the process on bias voltage, pulse length, and humidity is reported.