Fabrication and analysis of the nanometer-sized structure of silicon by ultrahigh vacuum field emission transmission electron microscope

It was found that crystalline silicon nanoparticles Si nanocrystals.can be formed in a SiO2 thin film by irradiation of a high intensity convergent electron beam at high temperature in an ultrahigh vacuum field emission transmission electron microscope UHV-FE-TEM.. The size of Si nanocrystals depended on the beam diameter. This implies that we can control the size of Si nanocrystals by changing the beam diameter. When the beam was scanned intermittently, an arrangement of Si nanocrystals was fabricated in the SiO2 thin film. Thus, a novel method of fabricating size- and position-controlled Si nanocrystals was developed. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved