A novel technique for the fabrication of nanostructures on silicon carbide using amorphization and oxidation

A novel technique for fabricating silicon dioxide (SiO₂) and silicon carbide (SiC) nanostructures on SiC substrates is reported in this paper. The technique involves amorphization of crystalline SiC at the nanoscale using a focused ion beam followed by selective thermal oxidation that results in oxide nanostructures due to the enhanced oxidation rate of amorphous SiC. Selective etching of the oxide results in crystalline SiC nanostructures. Nanostructures (SiO₂ and SiC) with minimum feature sizes of ∼55 nm have been fabricated. Oxide nano-channels with channel widths of less than 20 nm are demonstrated. The physical mechanisms that control the evolution of the structures and limit the resolution have been addressed.