The fabrication of solid-state nanopores using the electron beam of a transmission electron microscope (TEM) has been reported in the past. Here, we report a similar method to fabricate solid-state nanopores using the electron source of a conventional field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) instead. Micromachining was used to create initial pore diameters between and , and controlled pore shrinking to sub diameters was performed subsequently during in situ processing in the FESEM. Noticeably, different shrinking behavior was observed when using irradiation from the electron source of the FESEM than the TEM. Unlike previous reports of TEM mediated pore shrinkage, the mechanism of pore shrinkage when using the FESEM could be a result of surface defects generated by radiolysis and subsequent motion of silicon atoms to the pore periphery.
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Courtesy of Hitachi High Technologies America Inc. The numbers were determined by Faraday cup measurements. The model measured was S-5500, in which the beam current was identicle to the S-4800 used in our work.