Electron beam damage in titanium dioxide films

Single electron transistors are destined to be one of the most attractive candidates in the future for high density integrated circuits because of their low power consumption. Recently, it has been shown that room temperature single electron transistors can be fabricated by nano-oxidation process of titanium using a scanning tunneling microscope (Matsumoto et al. 1996). In the present study, nano-reduction processes in amorphous TiO_x and crystalline TiO₂ under an intense nanometer-sized electron probe will be discussed. It is observed that crystalline TiO₂ is more amenable to electron beam damage than amorphous TiO_x, contrary to what is observed in many crystalline oxides and fluorides.