The initial stages of atomic force microscope based local anodic oxidation of silicon

In this paper, the initial stages of local anodic oxidation (LAO) process initiated by AFM probe are studied on the wide (∼100μm) terraces of the atomic-smooth Si (111) surface when creating dense array of local oxidation points. The dependence of LAO points height on the value of voltage initiating the oxidation is found to have a pronounced step-like feature with a characteristic period of 0.7 ± 0.1 nm. The presented analysis shows for the first time the realization of the step-layer mechanism of anodic oxide growth on the Si (111) surface.