Abstract
Oxidation locally induced on a material surface by the use of scanning probe microscope (SPM)-based techniques is applicable to nanofabrication of a wide variety of materials including metals, semiconductors, inorganic compounds and organic materials. The mechanism of the SPM-induced local oxidation in the presence of the adsorbed water column formed at the SPM tip/sample junction is ascribed to electrochemical oxidation, that is, anodization, proceeding in the water nano-column, when the bias polarity is positive for the sample substrate. As well as scanning probe anodization of Si and Ti, a scanning probe lithography process in which an alkyl self-assembled monolayer (SAM) as a resist film patternable by anodization is described in this review. The patterned SAM was successfully applied to an etch mask in order to fabricate nano-grooves on Si. Besides oxidation, an example of nano-patterning based on electrochemical reduction is also demonstrated.
