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The scanning tunneling microscope has been used to define regular crystalline structures at room temperature by removing atoms from the silicon (001) surface. A single atomic layer can be removed to define features one atom deep and create trenches with ordered floors. Segments of individual dimer rows can be removed to create structures with atomically straight edges and with lateral features as small as one dimer wide. Conditions under which such removal is possible are defined, and a mechanism is proposed.

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Articles you may be interested inControlled manipulation of ethen molecules and lead atoms on Cu(211) with a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope Atomic manipulation with the scanning tunneling microscope offers a method for patterning with nanometer-scale resolution in the ultraclean environment available in ultrahigh vacuum. We have used atomic manipulation to write nanoscale trenches in Si͑001͒ surfaces and thus define structures that have atomically straight edges. These experiments suggest that silicon films can be directly patterned with atomic resolution for films that are one atomic layer thick and with 2.4 nm resolution for films that are three atomic layers thick. We report on the growth and patterning of single atomic layers of electronic materials on Si͑001͒.

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