AVS 46th International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Division Wednesday Sessions
       Session NS-WeM

Paper NS-WeM5
Patterning of Silicon Surfaces With a Non-Contact Atomic Force Microscope: Attomol Chemistry and Nanofabrication

Wednesday, October 27, 1999, 9:40 am, Room 612

Session: Nanopatterning
Presenter: R. Garcia, Consejo Superior Investigaciones Cientificas, Spain
Authors: R. Garcia, Consejo Superior Investigaciones Cientificas, Spain
M. Calleja, Consejo Superior Investigaciones Cientificas, Spain
H. Rohrer, Switzerland
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Nanometer-size water bridges have been used to confine the anodic oxidation of silicon surfaces with a non-contact atomic force microscope. The formation of a water bridge between two surfaces separated by a gap of a few nanometers is driven by the application of an external electrical field. Once a liquid bridge is formed, its length and neck diameter can be modified by changing the tip-sample separation. The liquid bridge provides the ionic species and the spatial confinement to oxidize Si(100) surfaces.@footnote 1,2@ The very small number of active ionic species within the bridge, a few attomoles, allows a precise control of the lateral and vertical size of the oxide. Above results are applied to develop a highly reproducible method to nanofabricate two types of patterns: (i) arrays of 5000 dots with a periodicity of 40 nm and an average width of 10 nm and (ii) lines 10 micron long and 10 nm wide. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@R. Garcia, M. Calleja and F. Perez-Murano, Appl. Phys. Lett. 72, 2295 (1998). @footnote 2@R. Garcia, M. Calleja and H. Rohrer, J. Appl. Phys. (in press).