Oxidative and carbonaceous patterning of Si surface in an organic media by scanning probe lithography

Abstract

A simple top-down fabrication technique that involves scanning probe lithography on Si is presented. The writing procedure consists of a chemically selective patterning in mesitylene. Operating in an organic media is possible to perform local oxidation or solvent decomposition during the same pass by tuning the applied bias. The layer deposited with a positively biased tip with sub-100-nm lateral resolution consists of nanocrystalline graphite, as verified by Raman spectroscopy. The oxide pattern obtained in opposite polarization is later used as a mask for dry etching, showing a remarkable selectivity in SF6 plasma, to produce Si nanofeatured molds.

Experimental Route to Scanning Probe Hot‐Electron Nanoscopy (HENs) Applied to 2D Material

“…Such a phenomenon is known to be mediated by the formation of a water meniscus at the tip-sample interface that occurs at higher relative humidity on most of the materials used in device fabrication. [46][47][48][49][50] 4. Results…”

Scanning probe oxidation of SiC, fabrication possibilities and kinetics considerations

“…State-of-the-art technology in patterning semiconductor substrates mainly relies on mask-based techniques such as optical lithography or mask-less techniques like electron beam lithography, which are particularly suited for industrial applications such as large scale production in microelectronics and microfabrication, in general. Among all the alternatives, several promising scanning probe-related lithographies (SPLs) also emerged [1][2][3][4] as an affordable and very versatile nanofabrication technique. The advantages of using an atomic force microscope (AFM) reside in the in-line nanometric accuracy and in the possibility of directly applying multistep processes on pre-patterned substrates with no need for photoresist coatings and/or alignment tools.…”

“…Figure 2 of silicon carbide, obtaining an even more effective fabrication technique, with respect to the case of SiO 2 /Si SPL grown masks. 4 Even if SiC behavior in fluorinated plasmas is different from Si (with etch rate ratios never exceeding unity), satisfactory etch rates have been obtained on 6H-SiC using chloride-based plasmas with SiO 2 masks.…”

The magic of nanoplasmonics: from superhydrophobic and 3D suspended devices for SERS/TERS-like applications to hot-electrons based nanoscopy

“…The main advantage of this configuration is due to the high efficiency through which hot electrons are generated that reach ~30% in the present system compared to ~1% reported in previous experiments [9]. The device was used to perform simultaneous topographic and photocurrent imaging of a GaAs layer on top of which a 0.7nm oxide layer was patterned using a high field discharge technique [27]. The idea is that for a given wavelength (E gap > hν>eΦ b ) the number of hot electrons overcoming the barrier between gold and the sample is dependent on the barrier height.…”