Low Energy Electron Stimulated Etching of Thin Si-Oxide Layer in Nanometer Scale 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 windows of 50 nm on average can be cut through the Si oxide layers with a minimum size of ∼25 nm. With this method, line- and ring-window patterns were successfully formed on the Si oxide layer. E-beam exposure dependence of the window size was observed on the fabricated line windows, which indicates high controllability of the nanofabrication procedure.