This article is cited in 10 papers

REVIEWS OF TOPICAL PROBLEMS

Fabrication of germanium and silicon nanostructures using a scanning tunneling microscope

A. A. Shklyaev^ab, M. Ichikawa<sup>a

a</sup> Quantum-Phase Electronics Center, Department of Applied Physics, The University of Tokyo and Japan Science and Technology Agency, CREST, Tokyo, Japan
^b The Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract: The state of the art of research on the fabrication of semiconductor surface nanostructures using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is reviewed. The continuous atom transfer occurring due to directional surface diffusion initiated by the STM electric field and involving field-induced evaporation is analyzed. The effect of irradiation with an external electron beam on the tip – sample interaction is discussed, which consists in reducing the barrier for direct interatomic reactions and in changing the direction of the tip – sample atomic transfer. The possibilities of fabricating germanium and silicon nanostructures such as islands and lines and also making silicon windows on oxidized silicon surfaces are demonstrated.

PACS: 68.37.Ef, 79.70.+q, 81.16.Ta

Received: February 22, 2006

DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0176.200609a.0913

 English version: Physics–Uspekhi, 2006, 49:9, 887–903

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