Nano-oxidation of silicon surfaces:: Comparison of noncontact and contact atomic-force microscopy methods
Nano-oxidation of silicon surfaces:: Comparison of noncontact and contact atomic-force microscopy methods
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DOI:
10.1063/1.1385582
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发表时间:
2001-07-16
影响因子:
4
通讯作者:
García, R
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Tello, M;García, R
Local oxidation lithography by atomic-force microscopy is emerging as a powerful method for nanometer-scale patterning of surfaces. Here, we perform a comparative study of contact and noncontact atomic-force microscopy (AFM) oxidation experiments. The comparison of height and width dependencies on voltage and pulse duration allows establishing noncontact AFM as the optimum local oxidation method. For the same electrical conditions, noncontact AFM oxides exhibit higher aspect ratios (0.04 vs 0.02). The smallness of the liquid meniscus in noncontact AFM oxidation produces smaller oxide widths. We also report a slower oxidation rate in contact AFM oxidation. We explain this result by introducing an effective energy barrier (similar to0.14 eV) that includes the mechanical work done by the growing oxide against the cantilever (similar to0.01 eV). (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.