Abstract. We demonstrate the use of a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) to pattern buried, highly planar phosphorus-doped silicon wires with widths down to the sub-10 nm level. We confirm the structural integrity of these wires using both buried dopant imaging techniques and ex situ electrical characterization. Four terminal I–V characteristics at 4 K show ohmic behaviour for all wires with resistivities between 1 and 24 × 10⁻⁸ Ω cm. Magnetotransport measurements reveal that conduction is dominated by disordered scattering with quantum corrections consistent with 2D weak localization theory. Our results show that these quantum corrections become more pronounced as the electron phase coherence length approaches the width of the wire.

Print publication: Issue 4 (31 January 2007)
Received 16 August 2006, in final form 3 November 2006
Published 12 December 2006