Topographical and electrical study of contact and intermittent contact mode InP AFM lithography

In order to fabricate nanoscale oxide patterns on an InP(001) surface, local anodization by atomic force microscopy (AFM) contact and intermittent contact modes has been performed. Contact mode results are similar to those obtained with the local anodization of silicon, and mainly limited by the effect of space charge that occurs during the oxide growth. The existence of this space charge associated with the poor dielectric quality of the obtained oxide has been verified by performing scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) measurements. Results for oxidation using intermittent AFM contact mode associated with a modulated voltage are more specific. For a more than two decade variation of probe velocity (0.01–5 µm s−1), the AFM oxidation introduces no significant changes in the oxide pattern. Experiments on the influence of oxidation time give rise to two regimes. First, for times shorter than 100 ms, a high growth rate is found. Second, for oxidation times longer than 100 ms, we observe an oxide height saturation and a significant decrease of lateral growth rate. These results provide a way to easily control the oxide shape. The space charge neutralization in this mode has also been investigated by SCM. The interesting results for intermittent contact oxidation confirm the capability of this technique to modify a nanoscale InP surface.