“…However, in the previous studies using synchrotron radiation, direct etching at room temperature proved impossible; it was necessary either to heat up the workpiece [14-16, 19, 21], or to use reactive gases [12,17,18,20,22]. In the former case, the etching rate improves as the temperature is raised up to about 700 °C [16,19,21], and an activation energy of 0.7 eV is needed [21]. The etching rate of SiO 2 is more than an order of magnitude lower than that of Si [24], and therefore crystalline Si can be used as a mask for SiO 2 etching [19,21].…”