Analysis of AFM tip induced oxidation of thin metal film in the air

摘要

With the development and application of nanofabrication on nano photoelectron device, the completely oxidized thin metal film such as titanium film by Atomic Force microscope (AFM) tip induced oxidation method has been used to make various nano electric devices. It is more and more important to study the process mechanism for improving the operational stability and reliability of such nano devices. In this paper, the mechanism of AFM tip induced oxidation is analyzed with several aspects. According to the experimental results of AFM tip induced oxidation of titanium under various voltage biases and scanning speeds, we find that the height of the titanium oxidation is linear with the voltage bias and with the negative log of the scanning speed. Based on the formers' theories, the mechanism and the theoretical modeling of AFM tip induced oxidation are improved. By setting the proper conditions such as voltage bias of 8V and scanning speed of 0.1 μm/s, good nanofabrication results with AFM oxidation of titanium are got and the oxide lines are with good aspect ratio and good continuity.