Fabrication of 10-nm Si pillars with self-formed etching masks

It has been found that nanoscale etching masks self-form during plasma etching with SF, when the sample is kept at around -130 degrees C, at which condensation of the reaction products starts to occur. We have also found that if nucleation sites are present on the surface, the condensation occurs preferentially on the nucleation sites and the resulting condensates act as etching masks, leading to the fabrication of Si nano-pillars. The above mechanism has been confirmed by fabrication of Si nanopillars using size-selected Ag clusters as condensation nuclei.