Metal positioning on silicon surfaces using the etching of buried dislocation arrays

Abstract

Large-area Si(001) nanopatterned surfaces obtained by etching dislocation line arrays havebeen used to drive the positioning of metallic islands. A method combining wafer bondingof (001) silicon on insulator layers and preferential chemical etching allows controllingthe periodicity of square trench arrays in the 20–50 nm lateral periodicity rangewith an accuracy of less than 1 nm and a depth of about 4–5 nm. The interfacialarea containing the dislocation line plane can be removed and a single crystalmaintaining the morphological patterning can be obtained. It is shown that oxidized ordeoxidized silicon nanopatterned surfaces can drive the positioning of Ni, Au and Agislands for a 20 nm lateral periodicity and that a lateral long range order, directlytransferred from the dislocation network, can be obtained in the Ni and Au cases.