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Metal-assisted chemical etching of Ge(100) surfaces in water toward nanoscale patterning.
| Content Provider | Europe PMC |
|---|---|
| Author | Kawase, Tatsuya Mura, Atsushi Dei, Katsuya Nishitani, Keisuke Kawai, Kentaro Uchikoshi, Junichi Morita, Mizuho Arima, Kenta |
| Copyright Year | 2013 |
| Abstract | We propose the metal-assisted chemical etching of Ge surfaces in water mediated by dissolved oxygen molecules (O2). First, we demonstrate that Ge surfaces around deposited metallic particles (Ag and Pt) are preferentially etched in water. When a Ge(100) surface is used, most etch pits are in the shape of inverted pyramids. The mechanism of this anisotropic etching is proposed to be the enhanced formation of soluble oxide (GeO2) around metals by the catalytic activity of metallic particles, reducing dissolved O2 in water to H2O molecules. Secondly, we apply this metal-assisted chemical etching to the nanoscale patterning of Ge in water using a cantilever probe in an atomic force microscopy setup. We investigate the dependences of probe material, dissolved oxygen concentration, and pressing force in water on the etched depth of Ge(100) surfaces. We find that the enhanced etching of Ge surfaces occurs only when both a metal-coated probe and saturated-dissolved-oxygen water are used. In this study, we present the possibility of a novel lithography method for Ge in which neither chemical solutions nor resist resins are needed. |
| ISSN | 19317573 |
| Journal | Nanoscale Research Letters |
| Volume Number | 8 |
| PubMed Central reference number | PMC3848777 |
| Issue Number | 1 |
| PubMed reference number | 23547763 |
| e-ISSN | 1556276X |
| DOI | 10.1186/1556-276x-8-151 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Publisher Date | 2013-04-02 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Rights License | This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Copyright © 2013 Kawase et al.; licensee Springer. |
| Subject Keyword | Dissolved oxygen Machining Catalyst Lithography Oxygen reduction Atomic force microscopy |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
| Subject | Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Condensed Matter Physics Materials Science |
