title: Nondestructive tribochemistry-assisted nanofabrication on GaAs surface.
abstract: A tribochemistry-assisted method has been developed for nondestructive surface nanofabrication on GaAs. Without any applied electric field and post etching, hollow nanostructures can be directly fabricated on GaAs surfaces by sliding a SiO2 microsphere under an ultralow contact pressure in humid air. TEM observation on the cross-section of the fabricated area shows that there is no appreciable plastic deformation under a 4 nm groove, confirming that GaAs can be removed without destruction. Further analysis suggests that the fabrication relies on the tribochemistry with the participation of vapor in humid air. It is proposed that the formation and breakage of GaAs-O-Si bonding bridges are responsible for the removal of GaAs material during the sliding process. As a nondestructive and conductivity-independent method, it will open up new opportunities to fabricate defect-free and well-ordered nucleation positions for quantum dots on GaAs surfaces.
authors.affiliation: Tribology Research Institute, Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, Sichuan Province, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chenfei
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
authors.forename: Xiaoying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
authors.forename: Hanshan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Tribology Research Institute, Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, Sichuan Province, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Bingjun
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, Sichuan Province, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhiming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Tribology Research Institute, Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, Sichuan Province, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Linmao
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qian