Abstract
Local anode oxidation (LAO) on the Si (111) surface has been studied in the contact operational regime of an atomic force microscope (AFM) in dependence to the relative ambient humidity \(\Theta\) of ( \(35{-}75\) ) \(\%\) at two potentials \(U\) ( \(-8\) and \(-10\) V) applied to the AFM probe. It has been shown that LAO for \(U=-8\) V occurs at \(\Theta\geq 40\%\) without the growth of oxide lines in width, but their height and width linearly grow at \(U=-10\) V throughout the entire range of \(\Theta\) . Based on the detailed analysis of LAO and the cantilever beam deflection in the course of probe approach to and retraction from the surface at varied \(\Theta\) without probe voltage, taking into account the data on the semicontact AFM operation mode from the scientific literature, a generalized mode is proposed for the dependence of the LAO process on \(U\) and \(\Theta\) .
