Electron-beam-stimulated etching has been investigated as a clean, alternative method for nanoscale selective processing. Primarily fluorine-based precursors have been used to etch a variety of technologically relevant materials. Empirical data reveals that with decreasing the electron beam energy increases the material removal rate, however the effective beam width increases. Both of these observations are consistent with the fact that cross-sections for electron-gas scattering increases with decresaing beam energy. Monte Carlo models of the electron-gas and electron-solid interactions have been performed to better udnerstand the fundamentals of the process. Finally, specific application to soft transmission electron microscopy sample preparation is made.

Date Published: 2 June 2003
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 5038, Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XVII, (2 June 2003); doi: 10.1117/12.482822

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5038:
Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XVII
Daniel J. Herr, Editor(s)